


Immortality

by bigk4062



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/M, M/M, More tags coming, Multi, coming home, new adventures, post dsod
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25615801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigk4062/pseuds/bigk4062
Summary: Post DSOD, but you don't have to know much about it to read this. One day Kaiba disappeared. Life went on without him, but when he comes back he brings more than anyone bargained for.. F/M M/M.
Relationships: Bakura Ryou/Mazaki Anzu | Tea Gardner, Jounouchi Katsuya | Joey Wheeler/Kaiba Seto, Kaiba Seto/Yami Yuugi | Atem, Mutou Yuugi/Yami Yuugi, Yami Bakura/Kaiba Seto, Yami Bakura/Kaiba Seto/Yami Yuugi
Comments: 19
Kudos: 12





	1. Immortality

**Author's Note:**

> Yea I know, I just finished a story and I've got one that there's about 70 pages to read and edit. Finally watched DSOD, and the ending with Kaiba just really annoyed me so I had to write something. FYI, Atem is the same person as Yami Yugi, the way I see it they merged together at the end of the original series, so he answers to both names. There is a brief mentioning of some hanky panky, but nothing graphic.

_“Immortality, as with death, can be both a blessing and a curse cousin.” Atem said softly, looking at Kaiba with sadness. “I am glad to be here with my friends, but I miss Yugi every day. I long for him, and even though I know he is strong, I worry for his safety, and I hope and pray to the Gods that I will see him again.” The two men walked through Atem’s gardens, the former Pharaoh stopping to admire some of the flowers, picking a flower off to smell it and offer it to Kaiba._

_“I know you didn’t believe in our former lives while I was around. What made you want to follow me here?” Kaiba fingered the flower turning it around in his fingers, admiring its golden color._

_“I.. wanted to challenge you to a duel. I wanted to gain back my title from you. If you would have let me duel you before, I wouldn’t have had to come here.” Kaiba replied, looking over at Atem with a hint of sadness._

_“You’ve given up a lot to do so, are you sure that’s what you want?” Atem asked quietly, tugging the brunet over towards a large globe. “You can stay here with me if you’d like, we can spend eternity playing whatever games we’d like. You will be my friend and confidant, and we will remanence about the things that happened when we lived in Japan. Choosing this life means that you will never truly die, but it also means you have to leave behind everything that you love.”_

_Kaiba braced himself, shaking his head as thoughts came to him. “There’s nothing in the world more important to me than this.” He replied, ignoring the nagging thought’s in his head that he was wrong, that there was something he had left behind._

_X_

_Weeks flew by as the two rivals played every game they could get there hands on. During the day, their competition started with dueling, where Atem won handily every single time, no matter what tricks Kaiba pulled out of his sleeve causing the brunet to fume. Dueling turned into board games, which turned into fighting games, which turned into other card games, and still Atem beat him handily at everything they did. The only time Kaiba came close was when Bakura came over, offering advice to the brunet so he could stand a chance._

_At night they would share a bed, Kaiba completely dominating the smaller man, marking his body with his teeth to show his displeasure at Atem’s win streak. Atem would just smile, whispering Kaiba’s name while he was imagining Yugi doing the exact same thing. Then Kaiba would hit him just right, and there was nothing else, just complete and utter bliss as they clung to each other afterwards. Sometimes Bakura would watch, creeping into Atem's room while they were busy, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on them. Nothing in Kaiba's life had prepared him for the utter bliss he felt wrapped in the arms of the two spirits, and his satisfaction of spending eternity like this._

_X_

_One day Kaiba woke up, stretching his muscles as he lazily looked around. As his brain caught up to his eyes, he realized that he was not looking at Yami’s bedroom, but his room at home in his mansion. Throwing his covers off, he tried to get out of bed, falling as his legs failed to support him._

_Reaching for anything to help him stand, he knocked over a lamp, muttering to himself in annoyance at the noise. A few moments later a maid poked her head in, blinking in surprise at her boss before running for help._

_Fuguta was there within minutes, helping his boss over to a wheelchair which Kaiba attempted to refuse, but found he was too weak._

_“Mr. Kaiba, are you alright?” Fuguta asked, looking the brunet over in alarm. “I’ve called the doctor. He will be here soon. I called Mokuba as well, but he is in a meeting and couldn’t be disturbed.” The older man added, frowning as his boss batted away his help._

_“I’m fine. I just need a moment.“ He said, looking back out the window. “Well, you don’t have that much time, Mr. Moto is on his way to speak to you. He asked to be notified when you woke up as well.”_

_“Great.” Kaiba snapped, thinking quickly. “Tell security to stall him and help me get into my office.” Fuguta nodded, giving directives before hanging up._

_“Help me get dressed.” Kaiba said, watching as Fuguta disappeared into his closet, grabbing a blue suit and white undershirt. He helped his boss carefully, watching Kaiba frown as the clothes hung off him but stayed silent. Wheeling Kaiba into his office, Fuguta offered the man his arm to lean on as he transitioned to his office chair, gritting his teeth in annoyance over his weakness._

_Once he felt ready, a quick nod had Fuguta leaving to retrieve Yugi while Kaiba booted his computer. The King of Games entered quietly, settling himself down and waiting while Kaiba typed away. When the brunet finally paused, he started at the change in the other boy. Yugi had grown by almost half a foot seemingly overnight, his eyes losing that wide-eyed innocent look that had drove Kaiba nuts._

_“What happened to you?” He asked, watching Yugi’s eyes narrow slightly._

_“You’ve been gone for almost 2 years, and you have the nerve to ask what happened to me?” Yugi snapped, crossing his arms and huffing in annoyance._

_“What are you talking about, I’ve…” Kaiba’s voice trailed off as he looked at his computer. Sure enough, it had been almost 2 years since graduation._

_“Did you find him?” Yugi asked quietly, almost sadly. Kaiba’s mind raced, thinking back over what had happened. Maybe he really hadn’t found Atem, maybe all that time had been just a figment of his imagination… the two rivals sat in silence for a moment before Yugi’s phone rang. He answered, holding a finger up and looking at Kaiba with a clear ‘We aren’t done’ face.’_

_“Ryou? What’s going on?... Wait, what happened to Tea?”_

_X_

_Tea yawned as she opened her eyes, blinking to get her vision into focus. Ryou’s hair tickled her back, his left arm wrapped around her hip. She smiled softly, closing her eyes for a few minutes to enjoy spending time with her boyfriend. She had just finished up a grueling touring schedule, and a few days off before her next audition was just what she needed to get her body and mind back on check._

_Pressing herself more firmly against Ryou’s back, she allowed herself to doze, waking back up with a start when someone grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the bed. “Ryou, what are doing!” She grumbled, looking up at the male through sleep tangled hair. Ryou didn’t answer, just looked in horror at the bed. Tea poked her head up, her own face paling when she realized that she had been snuggling with a naked Yami Bakura._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bakura's back, Kaiba's back. Where's Yami?

Yugi ran out of Kaiba Manor as fast as he could, jumping in his car and driving over to Ryou’s. Clearly the other former item holder had called their other friends, as his phone was ringing off the hook. He ignored all of it, not knowing how to process his own emotions let alone anyone else’s.

First Kaiba was back, now Yami Bakura, but was Yami? He wanted to drive back to The Game Shop and tear the place apart looking for his other half, but he needed to help his friends first. Pulling up behind Tristan’s bike, he parked, taking a deep breath to calm himself down a bit before getting out. He could hear the yelling before he even opened the door, and when he walked in Bakura was tied to a chair with Tristan and Duke flanking him while Ryou sat on the couch and shook.

Yugi took in his friend’s shocked faces before looking over at the former Thief King. His face still carried a trace of the scar he had back in Egypt, but it had faded to a light line across his cheek. His hair was a dirty grey, looking like it had been stained from a lack of proper cleaning. He was broad, with wide shoulders and large arms, but still somehow looked starved.

Staring straight ahead, not flinching as the other three yelled around him, Yugi couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Even though he had done terrible things in the past, he had been manipulated and abused his entire life, and Yugi wanted nothing more than to believe he could change.

“Are the ropes really necessary?” He asked, looking over at Tristan who nodded. “Don’t you think he could get out of them if he tried?” Tristan’s eyes flicked over to Ryou, who frowned, looking at his former parasite.

“My host is just upset his girlfriend enjoyed being in bed with me.” Bakura purred, smiling. Ryou tensed, and Tristan hit Bakura in the shoulder, glaring at him.

“Where is Tea?” Yugi asked, looking around the room.

“She’s taking a shower; she has practice in an hour.” Duke said, folding his arms and glaring. Yugi settled down next to Ryou, placing a hand on his friend’s arm in comfort. Still the white-haired man stayed quiet, his brain moving a mile a minute. Bakura ignored him, choosing instead to focus on Yugi.

“And where’s your better half? Did you let him sleep in?” Yugi froze as everyone stared at him. A long pause, and Bakura smirked to himself.

“I haven’t found him yet.” Yugi muttered, looking down at his lap. Bakura’s eyebrow quirked, surprised at the news.

“He left before I did, I would have thought he would have been sent straight to you.” The former spirit muttered, looking perplexed.

“Kaiba’s back, I know that.” Yugi said, causing everyone to gasp.

Tea appeared just then dressed in sweats with her hair tied back in a bun holding her gym bag. She skirted Bakura as well as she could, walking over to Ryou and giving him a kiss on the cheek. She then turned towards her other friends, smiling reassuringly at them.

“You can untie him Tristan, I’m fine now. We need answers about what’s going on.” She said, nodding towards Tristan. The brunet frowned, reluctantly reaching for the rope, only to find that Bakura had already taken care of the knots, much like Yugi had said he would.

Tea turned towards Yugi, smiling softly. “Your Grandpa called me Yugi, he said he’s been trying to get in touch with you. Sounds like Kaiba has made his way over to The Game Shop, I can hear him arguing with Joey in the background.” Yugi jumped off the couch, shouting out an ‘I’ll be back’ to his friends before running out the door.

X

Grandpa watched as Yugi ran out the door with barely a word. “Kids these days.” He muttered, looking around the shop. Yugi was supposed to be cleaning the top shelves for him, dusting so the elder could take it easy after hurting his back again the other day. Instead, off he went, eyes wide open in shock after the phone rang.

“Barely a word to his Grandpa even.” He muttered, rubbing his stiff back. Eyeing the calendar, he couldn’t help but smile. Joseph would be coming in a few minutes, and he would gladly help clean the entire Game Shop for a booster pack or two. The young punk who had stumbled into their lives had turned into a good friend to his grandson, and someone who the old man was proud to call family.

Speaking of which… the door jingled, and Joey came in, hands in his pockets and deep in thought. Seeing Grandpa, he stopped, smiling at the old man brightly. “Hey Gramps! Where’s Yug?”

“He ran off on very important business this morning.” Grandpa said, smiling back. “He apparently forgot it’s cleaning day at the Game Shop.”

Joey took the rag out of his hand with a laugh. “Don’t hurt yourself there Gramps, why don’t you check in shipment and let good old Jumping Joey Wheeler take care of the rest.” The blond pointed at himself with a grin, winking at the old man.

“Thank you, Joseph. I appreciate the fact that one of you boys looks out for me. There’re some leftover cinnamon rolls in the fridge for you, Tea dropped them off yesterday.” Joey grinned even wider, bouncing through the door that separated the Game Shop from Yugi’s home, eyeing the plate of sugary goodness. Scarfing down one, he went back out, listening carefully while he was given instructions on what to do.

Soon he was in a groove, wiping down shelves and inventory, checking dates on the candy up front for anything expired, rearranging the displays on the shelves. He had just climbed into the front window to wipe it down when the side door opened, and he heard someone being greeted, then silence. Suddenly, a voice yelled out “Where is he?” followed by a thump, and Joey backed out of the window only to see Kaiba, leaning over the counter towering over Yugi’s Grandpa.

Shock fell over Joey, as he realized that Kaiba was awake. It quickly turned to rage, and the blond ran over, tackling Kaiba to the ground, not seeing the wheelchair the brunet had just pulled himself out of until they both knocked it over.

Fuguta came forward, throwing Joey off before helping up his boss. “Master Kaiba, please. You shouldn’t be worrying about this right now.” He said, adjusting the wheelchair before picking the brunet up. “Your doctor is waiting at home to look at you, let’s come back later.” Kaiba pushed him away, glaring daggers at Joey. Slowly lifting himself up, Kaiba charged, or at least tried too. His legs were weak after two years of not using them, and he all he managed to do was grab ahold of Joey’s coat on his way down.

The two rolled on the floor, throwing punches and yelling. Grandpa picked up the phone, calling Yugi yet again. When there was no answer, he tried several of his grandson’s friends, frowning as he just reached voicemails. Not knowing what to do, he watched as the two knocked over several displays before finally snapping. “That’s enough you two. Knock it off before I throw both of you out.” That stopped them, wide eyes looking up at the ticked off older man for a minute before Joey kicked Kaiba off him, starting the fight all over again.

Fuguta tried to separate them but he wasn’t having any more luck and ended looking on helplessly as they continued to fight. Finally, Joey managed to get himself on top, pining Kaiba down as the two glared at each other. He hissed something under his breath at Kaiba, who started to turn pink with rage before trying to wiggle out from underneath the blond. They started yelling at each other, snapping insults back and forth while Solomon finally got Tea to answer her phone. She recognized the voices in the background immediately, promising to get Yugi back to the house as quickly as possible.

X

Mokuba sighed internally as the meeting he was in dragged on and on. Meeting with the investors of Kaiba Corps latest project was a chore on the best of days. Today it seemed to be even worse. Mokuba couldn’t focus, his mind drifting off, thinking of his brother.

Seto had been in that coma for what seemed like forever but had shown no signs that he was going to wake soon. Personally, Mokuba wasn’t even sure he wanted him to. He was still so angry at his brother for what he had done. Leaving him alone like that, with no one to take care of him, with no warning, and expecting nothing bad to happen while he was gone. The worst part was this wasn’t the first time Seto had done this to him, and Mokuba was sure that it wouldn’t be the last.

“Mr. Kaiba?” One of the investors asked looking over at the Raven-haired boy. Mokuba shook his head apologizing stiffly while the investor continued talking about the expansion of Kaiba Corp. Once the meeting was over, Mokuba sat tall while the investors left, only taking a breath once he realized he was alone. Within seconds Cynthia was at the door looking at him expectantly.

“Mr. Kaiba I am sorry I didn’t say anything before, but you received a phone call from home. I told them you would call as soon as you were out of your meeting.” Mokuba nodded, walking past his brother’s- no his- personal assistant into his office. When Seto had disappeared, Roland had suggested he take over the office temporarily but Mokuba had refused not wanting to be his brother. Plus, he liked the smaller office it had a better view and people were less likely to barge into the VP's office when they wanted something even if they knew that the president wasn't there now.

Shutting the door, he grabbed his phone dialing the number he knew by heart and waiting for someone to answer. “What do you mean he woke up?” He asked listening as when the security guards told him about What had happened earlier in the day.

“Where is he now? Why would he be there? Alright. Tell them I am on my way.” Mokuba hung up the phone Her before running out of his office only pausing to tell Cynthia that he would be gone for the rest of the day, telling her to take the rest of the day off as well. Cynthia smiled at him nodding as a young boy you ran out the door before getting back to work. She had been working six days a week for years, and one more Saturday afternoon was not going to hurt her.

X

Yugi ran into The Game Shop, stopping as he took in the site before him. Joey and Kaiba were still on the floor, weakly throwing punches at each other while Fuguta and Grandpa looked on. Yugi didn’t know what to do so he just joined his Grandfather, quietly looking over the old man to make sure he hadn’t been hurt.

“Yugi, what’s going on?” Solomon asked, looking over at his grandson.

“I’m not really sure Grandpa, it seems like Kaiba and Bakura are back…” Yugi trailed off, looking towards the connection door sadly.

“And the Pharaoh?” Grandpa asked quietly, knowing from his grandson’s face what the answer was going to be but wanting to make sure.

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen him yet I don’t know if he’s here or what happened to him.” Yugi admitted, softly frowning.

“Well, perhaps you should go to the into the house and look.” Grandpa said, smiling at his grandson.

“Are you sure you don’t’ need help?” Yugi asked, looking at the two of the floor. Joey had Kaiba in a headlock, taking care not to use too much pressure on the brunet. Grandpa nodded, pushing his Grandson firmly away. Yugi did just that, searching the entire house for any sign of the Pharaoh.

After not finding anything he walked back into the shop, only to find that Mokuba had shown up, glaring the famous Kaiba glare at his brother and Joey who had finally untangled themselves, Joey mumbling apologies to Kaiba after having helped put him back in his chair. Kaiba looked up, saw Yugi, and collapsed back into himself, realizing by the look on the boy’s face that he had not found Yami, who they had both been looking for.

“We are going home now; the doctor needs to check you out.” Mokuba said, looking over at Fuguta who immediately pushed Kaiba out the door. The blue-eyed man looked over his little brother ready the protest but knowing that now was not the time. Mokuba look back at grandpa bowing several times and apologizing profusely for the way his brother had acted before glaring one more time at Joey as he left the shop. It was instantly quiet after the Kaiba brothers left, the three remaining occupants looking at each other. Finally, once the brother’s car left, Joey stepped forward, wrapping his arms around his friend, holding Yugi as he started to cry.

X

Once Yugi got ahold of himself, he took Joey over to Ryou’s house, explain to him on the way about what had happened that morning already. Joey’s blood was still clearly pumping after his fight with Kaiba, and Yugi warned him about starting one with Bakura as he parked. Joey had agreed, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself before entering the house.

Tea had left for class, and the four boys in the house were sitting around staring at each other. Joey took a moment to take in the sight of Bakura in the flesh before flashing a smile. “Man, and I thought beating up Kaiba was going to be the weird point in my day.” He joked, and Tristan stared at him.

“You beat up Kaiba?” Joey opened his mouth to brag, but Yugi stopped him.

“Kaiba can’t walk really well right now. He’s legs are weak because he hasn’t moved around much for two years. He managed to drag himself out of his wheelchair long enough to take a swing, and well..” Yugi trailed off, waving a hand at Joey with a frown.

Bakura started to laugh, the harsh sound bouncing off the walls causing everyone to look at him. “I’m just happy that idiotic priest got what’s coming to him… at least someone around here has some balls.” He said, smiling snarky at Joey who growled.

Yugi placed a hand on the blond’s arm, reminding him of his promise while Bakura laughed some more. “Take a walk Joey.” He said, pushing his friend towards the door. Joey marched off, glaring over his shoulder at the former thief who just grinned before storming out the door.

“Have you just come back to aggravate all of my friends? Didn’t you do enough damage while you were here last time?” Ryou asked, looking over Bakura in annoyance.

“Well, look who grew a backbone. Did that big-boobed brunette girlfriend of yours teach you that or did you learn it-“He was cut off by Tristan punching him in the face. Bakura’s eyes twinkled, and he jumped up, pinning the brunet roughly to the ground. Duke tried to intervene, but he pushed the raven-haired boy away.

“I’m going to enjoy cutting you into tiny pieces.” He whispered to Tristan, who froze for a second. Bakura reached for his knife, frowning as he remembered he no longer had it. Tristan used that split second to throw Bakura off him, getting up quickly ready for another round. Bakura grinned even wider, readying himself for his opponents next move.

“Looks like someone’s picked up a few moves since the last time we met.” He smirked, watching as Tristan tensed up even more. The brunet charged, Bakura jumping out of the way effortlessly, or so he thought. Tristan grabbed the edge of his shirt, causing the thief to fall, hitting his head on Ryou’s coffee table, passing out on the floor. Ryou jumped up, pushing Tristan off Bakura while checking his former parasite’s pulse. Relieve fluttered his veins when he was able to find it, and he glared at the brunet who backed up with his hands held high.

“This is not helping right now Tristan. We need to figure out what’s going on, not fight with each other.” Ryou snapped, petting Bakura’s head absently. He really was here with them in the flesh.

“Sorry, man. I just couldn’t let him get away with talking about Tea that way.” Tristan said, backing up even further. He knew there would be hell to pay when the thief King awoke, and he wanted to have a running start. Yugi came out of the kitchen with some ice, looking down at Ryou who had his arms wrapped protectively around Bakura.

“Ryou, I’m sure he’s fine. He’s been through a lot worse.” Yugi said quietly, kneeling to check on the other man.

“Maybe we should take him to the hospital… he can pretend to be me.” Ryou muttered, tracing a finger lightly down Bakura’s scar. Tristan approached hesitantly, looking over Bakura carefully.

“I think he’s ok, he should be up in a second or two.” He said thoughtfully. “I’ve seen Joey through enough concussions to know the signs of one.” He added, watching as Bakura’s eyes fluttered open almost on cue then narrowed as he realized he was the center of attention.

“What are you all looking at?” He snapped, looking around, annoyed at the attention he was getting.

“Sorry man, just making sure you’re alright.” Tristan said, holding up his hands defensively. Bakura opened his mouth to threaten the brunet but stopped when he realized that Ryou was fussing over him. Looking up at his former host, he took in the worried eyes looking back at him. For a second his heart thudded, and he wondered what that feeling was. Shaking his head, he attempted to get up, only to be stopped by a hand on his chest.

“You should lay down for a moment Bakura. You really bashed your head hard we want to make sure you’re ok.” Yugi said, offering the ice to him.

“I’m the Thief King. I don’t ice a headache.” Bakura snapped, feeling Ryou tense next to him. Frowning, he grabbed the ice, placing it on the part of his head that hurt the most and laying back down.

“Joey should check him over. He would know better than me if Bakura needs to go to the hospital.” Tristan admitted, looking out the window.

“He’s probably pacing outside; I’ll go grab him.” Duke said, disappearing out the door. Several quiet minutes passed before Tristan’s phone rang.

“Hello? No he’s not here, did you try his cell? It’s off? That’s weird, I’ll try to call him too.” Tristan hung up, perplexed.

“That was Duke. He can’t find Joey, and said Joey’s not answering his phone either. I’m going to go help him look.” With that Tristan took off, running out the door to look for his friend. Ryou sighed, looking down at Bakura in thought before glancing up at Yugi.

“Never a dull moment when it comes to our group is there?” He asked, causing the other duelist to smile.

“How about I go order some lunch, those three will be hungry when they come back.” Ryou agreed, continuing to rub Bakura’s hair gently.

X

Joey took a walk around the block, taking deep breaths to calm himself. His face was still smarting from the punch Kaiba had thrown, but his pride hurt more than anything. He shouldn’t have attacked the man, it was evident from the first punch that Kaiba was too weak to really fight, but Joey had let himself be dragged back into their old habits too quickly to care. He tried to pull back a little, barely stopping himself from punching his lights out.

“Stupid Kaiba. What the hell is he doing back here?” Joey muttered, kicking a little bit of gravel on the road. He didn’t have time for whatever this was. Going to school for nursing was draining everything out of him, and he just wanted to go home and sleep the rest of the day once he walked out of the classroom. Now Kaiba was back, Bakura was back, and Yami was probably around the corner, which mean they were about to get dragged into some sort of craziness.

“I hate him so much.” Joey muttered again, kicking the gravel harder, wincing as he hit his foot. He couldn’t help but think back over the years that Kaiba had tormented him during school, only to disappear one day, leaving them to deal with the fall out with his little brother, not to mention the empty space in his life that that brunet had filled. Joey was lost in thought, not even noticing when a car stopped next to him until someone grabbed him and dragged him inside. He fought for a second, relaxing when he realized who was in the backseat.

“Jeez Mokuba, what are you doing? Don’t you know it’s illegal to pull people off the streets.” Joey teased, giving the VP a hug. Mokuba smiled back sadly, leaning against the seats.

“The doctor’s in with Seto right now, and I couldn’t stay with him. I had to get out of there.” The raven-haired boy nodded up front and Roland started driving.

“Where are we going?” Joey asked, eyeing the man in front.

“Nowhere. I just needed to talk to you in private.” Mokuba admitted, smiling at his friend. Joey took in Mokuba’s red-rimmed eyes, figuring that his reunion with his brother probably did not go very well.

“Everything ok Mokuba?” He asked carefully, watching as the raven-haired boy sighed.

“Seto told me he was taking back over his role as CEO. Just like that. No thank you, no good job, no nothing. It’s like the past few years never even happened. He doesn’t even care about what I had to do to keep Kaiba Corp from being taken over by suits.” Mokuba said, looking out the window.

“Did you talk to him about it?” Joey asked, and Mokuba hmphed.

“He doesn’t listen to me. Even though I’m almost as tall as him now, he still sees me as the little brother he knew 2 years ago.” Mokuba flopped against the seat, folding his arms aggressively.

“I know what you’re saying Mokuba. As soon as I saw him it was like no time had passed. All I wanted to do was lay him out for not respecting anybody's wishes. For not respecting Yugi when he asked your brother not to do this and for not respecting you by leaving you alone again.” Mokuba looked up at Joey was sad eyes barely able to smile at his friend

“Thank you for caring.” Ge whispered giving Joey another hug.

“Anytime kid.” Joey told him, ruffling Mokuba’s raven hair. “I just wish that there was more I could do for you.”

“You've done enough. I just wish Seto could see that. He didn’t even try to come see me, all he cared about was whether or not Yami had come back.” Mokuba said sadly.

“This will all get figured out it's just going to take some time.” Joey promised, punching the younger boy lightly on the arm. “Now we just need to figure out what happened to Yami. He hasn't shown up anywhere yet.”

Mokuba frowned, thinking hard. “I wonder if he is at the mansion. There's plenty of space there that he could hide in. Maybe he came back with Seto. I will have the maids look around for anything weird.” “Thanks, Mokuba.” Joey said. “Let me know if I can be any help with your brother, I promise I will try to be nicer to him.” Mokuba smiled, hugging Joey quickly before looking over at Roland.

“Drop Joey off at Ryou’s, we should go home.” Roland nodded, making two quick left turns to take Joey back from where he came from. Mokuba hugged Joey again as a blonde crawled out, having a thought before sticking his head back in to add “You want to come up for a moment? I'm sure everyone would like to see you.”

Mokuba shook his head. “I need to get home; I need to spend some time with my big brother.” Joey nodded his head thanking Roland for taking him back before disappearing inside Ryou's house. Mokuba watched him go, wishing that he could be anywhere but heading back to the mansion.

X

The rest of the day pass slowly. The gang split up to look for Yami, Bakura ignoring all them lying on the couch pretending to have a headache. Joey could tell that he was lying, but he decided to let it slide because the former thief was being quiet. They regrouped as Tea got back from practice, continuing their discussion, breaking up just in time for everyone to go home for dinner.

Joey offered to have Bakura come home with him, but Tea refused, stating that she was fine, and she was not scared of him. Ryou sent her a questioning look but she shook her head, looking over her shoulder at Bakura who was lying on the couch with his back to them. She kissed her friend’s goodbye, seeing them out the door, waving as they jumped in their vehicles and left.

“Ryou, why don’t you start dinner? I’m going to put in a load of laundry.” Ryou nodded, kissing her gently before glancing over at Bakura. Seeing he hadn’t moved; he left the room. Tea quickly gathering some clothes, dumping them into the washing machine, wincing as her foot started to throb. She had landed funny showing choreography to one of the classes, and while she managed to keep herself in control, her ankle was already swelling. Closing the lid, she started the machine, sighing in relief that she could finally sit down and relax. Dancing was her passion, but sometimes she wished she had decided to do something that was less physically demanding.

Trying not to put too much weight on her leg, she limped over to the loveseat, sitting down so she could see Bakura out of the corner of her eye. He hadn’t moved since everyone left, and Tea did not know how to address him. She was slightly embarrassed about how she had acted that morning and wanted to try to mend fences with him.

“Are you hungry Bakura?” She asked quietly, watching him carefully to see if he responded to her question. Nothing. “I stopped by the store and picked up something for you.” She added, hoping to get him to respond. Still nothing. “Ryou told me they were your favorite…” she let her voice trail off, still not getting anything from him. “Alright, well, if you’re interested let me know. Just make it quick, if Ryou opens the freezer there won’t be any left.”

That got a response, Bakura whipping his head around to stare at her, the thought of someone stealing something that belonged to him making the former thief sick. Tea grinned, shaking her head. “That’s what I thought.” She said, winking. Getting up, she gently walked into the kitchen, smacking Ryou’s hand away from the box. “Knock it off.” She warned, kissing him.

“You mean they’re not for me?” Ryou said, pouting.

“They’re a peace offering. Stop it, I’m trying to make friends with him.” Tea said, kissing Ryou again before grabbing the box of cream puffs.

“I can’t believe you bought those for him.” Ryou pouted, folding his arms. Tea rolled her eyes before eyeing the stove.

“Don’t let dinner burn dear.” Ryou smiled, turning his attention back to what he was doing. Tea approached Bakura, handing him the package while the Thief King tried not to look interested. He poked at it, frowning as he opened it up.

“Ryou likes these, not me.” He stated flatly, closing the box, and throwing it at her. Tea picked it up, ignored his attitude.

“I must have been mistaken then. I thought he told me he would have to hide these from you or you would eat them yourself. I’ll give them to Ryou, he’ll enjoy that.” Bakura paused, looking over at Tea.

“He told you that?”

“Yea, he seemed pretty fond of the memory too.” She said, looking down at the box. Bakura was silent, thinking something over in his head.

“Maybe if you try one, you’d remember if you like them or not?” She suggested, holding the box out again. Bakura hesitated, reaching out and grabbing one of the puffs and putting it in his mouth. It was just as delicious as he remembered, and the taste brought back a long dormant memory.

_“I know we don’t always get along spirit, but I wanted to do something for you.” Ryou whispered in his mind when Bakura found the package. “These are my favorite, and I hope you like them.” Bakura had put one in his mouth, not surprised at the sweet taste. His lighter half always ate sweets, half the time when he took over their shared body Bakura wanted to brush his teeth for hours to keep them from decaying._

_However, this was different. They had just gotten back from Battle City, when Bakura had injured Ryou several times to gain more of the items. Ryou should hate him right now, not be giving him gifts… abruptly he shut the box, walking away from it as he growled to himself. He needed to focus, needed to keep his head in the game. Perhaps one more though… he took another bite, ignoring the goofy grin on his lighter half’s face._

Bakura abruptly pushed the box away, knocking Tea off the loveseat in the process. It wouldn’t have been a big deal, except she landed awkwardly on her hurt ankle and cried out in pain. Ryou rushed in, taking in his girlfriend lying on the ground with Bakura over her, and immediately got the wrong impression.

“Get out.” He snapped, stalking over to Tea to help her out. Bakura stopped, narrowing his eyes at his former host. Ryou never spoke to him like that before, and he desperately wanted to put him in his place. Now was not the time though. He straightened up, marching out the front door despite Tea’s protests that everything was fine.

X

Mokuba returned home, taking deep breaths while he waited for his brother to come back home. Seto had been gone for a long time, leaving Mokuba to clean up the pieces and hold everything together. The two of them needed to have a talk, but right now wasn’t the time. Instead, he involved himself in helping the staff search for Yami, taking it upon himself to look outside around the pool house and in the woods behind the mansion. Nothing. He couldn’t understand why Bakura would come back and Yami wouldn’t unless the former Pharaoh refused to for some reason.

“Mr. Kaiba?” Roland questioned, interrupting Mokuba’s thoughts. The raven-haired teen raised an eyebrow, waiting for the head of security to speak. “No sign of anyone anywhere.” Roland reported. “We’ve searched the entire 1st and 2nd floor. We’re about to start the third.”

Mokuba nodded looking back towards the woods deep in thought. “I’ll come help you.” He said turning and walking next to Roland back inside. The bodyguard walked silently next to him, knowing his younger charge well enough to know that something was weighing heavily on the young boy’s mind. Even though he had a feeling what was going on he wanted to give Mokuba a chance to express himself. While he was just an employee, over the years he had come to see the Kaiba brothers as his own sons, and the past two years watching Mokuba grow up without his brother around had deeply troubled him. He only hoped that there was still time for them to mend that relationship before it got it was too late.

During the search through the 3rd floor, Fuguta called Roland, stating that he was on his way back to the mansion with Kaiba. Roland relayed the message to Mokuba who immediately brushed himself off and announced that the search was done. The two security guards and maid that had been helping all left the floor leaving Mokuba to lock the doors behind them.

“Hopefully if Yami does show up here he’ll have the common sense to yell so someone can hear him.” Mokuba muttered looking over at Roland.

“Tell my brother I want to go take a shower if he needs anything it can wait.” Roland nodded, letting the Raven hair boy walk away. He walked downstairs checking the first floor to make sure everything was up to the elder Kaiba’s strict standards. The maid was cleaning and dusting trying to pick up a few things that had been around the house.

During the past few years, even though Mokuba still employed a full-time staff he hadn’t been staying at the mansion. For the most part he stayed with the Moto’s, Yugi’s Grandpa acting as his legal Guardian for school events in functions. If he wasn’t there, he was staying with Joey and Tristan, the two older boys taking him under their wing and acting like she was there a little brother. Unfortunately, that was all going to come to an end and as much as Roland hated to admit that he was going to miss spending time with the so-called Geek Squad. They may be a little crazy sometimes and may worry too much about friendship, but they were good kids and they really cared about both Kaiba brothers, even if Kaiba didn't want to admit it to himself.

The sound of a car pulling up pulled him out of his musings, looking around the living room one more time debating whether or not the elder Kaiba would be comfortable in there before grabbing an Afghan and wrapping it around the back of one of the chairs. He then he then walked to the front door to officially welcome Mr. Kaiba back to his home, wishing that Mokuba was there with him as well.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang continues their search

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to Fall_in_Fryearth and my guests for leaving Kudos

The next morning, Kaiba altogether a meeting of his board. He had Mokuba do it, not wanting to tell anybody yet that he was back. Usually he would have let Mokuba start the meeting and then strolled in and let everybody know the what for but his legs still weren’t working right so he was forced to sit at the head of the table with his trademark Kaiba glare as one by one his shareholders and managers walked in, shocked to see him. “Mr. Kaiba,” his head of marketing stammered blinking in surprised to see him. “When did you come back from your trip” Kaiba simply looked briefly over at Mokuba before replying.   
“Late last night, And I promise Mokuba I’d be here today to let you know what I found out.”   
“So was the testing a success?” His business manager asked and Kaiba nodded.  
“I was able to implement myself several times into the virtual world. There are few things that will need to work on to make it viable for market, but this technology is vastly superior to the one that we came out with before. It took a long time and a lot of work, but I believe this is going to bring Kaiba Corp into the next generation of gaming.” His Board all clapped happy to hear that they were going to be making more money.   
“Mr. Kaiba it is good to have you home.” Another one of his directors said reaching a handout to shake Kaiba’s hand. One by one they all welcomed him back into his role as CEO and President, ignoring the younger Kaiba who had been doing both those roles for the past two years. Mokuba blinked back his tears of frustration, allowing himself to once again become the little brother of the great CEO unable to stop himself from frowning.  
X  
“Has anybody heard from Mokuba the past few days?” Joey asked looking over at Tristan. The two boys were having a gaming fest on one of their rare nights off together. Joey was just hitting up his first semester of school and working an overnight packing job that paid decently, while Tristan was doing an internship any local car dealership working in the shop. With their opposing schedules they didn’t get to do much together which made the time they did spend together even more precious.   
Of course, they wouldn’t be able to afford a place at all if it hadn’t been for Mokuba. The kid paid them to do odd jobs around the mansion, much more than what was expected but he knew that they were in desperate need of the money. Joey’s father had walked out on him the day after graduation, and with his credit he hadn’t been able to hold down a place even with a job.   
Luckily one of CEO’s money investments was a local apartment building, Mokuba offering them at lease for extremely cheap in exchange for a place for him to stay when he got lonely. The two had argued against it not wanting Mokuba to think the only reason they spend time with him was because of his money, but the raven-haired boy had insisted that it was the only way he could think of to pay them back for all the years of help they had given him and his brother.   
Usually the kid would stop by every couple days and call one of them at least once a day, but neither had heard from him since Kaiba and Bakura came back. The whole gang had tried to text them, wanting to know how Kaiba was doing, but all they received was a response from Roland asking them to give the boys some space to work things out.   
Of course, the return of the CEO of Kaiba Corp was big news. It had been all over the day before and the pictures in the paper that morning had been of a proud and stern Kaiba sitting at his desk with Mokuba standing next to him eyes downcast and a frown on his face.  
“I guess he’ll just contact us when he’s ready.” Tristan said shrugging. “I’m sure he’s really busy right now spending time with his brother.”   
“I guess.” Joey said tapping on the controller. “I just feel bad for him he seemed so unhappy when I talked to him the day his brother came back. I hope that things are going to be OK between the two of them.”   
“Well do you blame him for being upset? I mean Kaiba left. He disappeared for two years and left Mokuba in limbo well he went off to play card games with some imaginary pharaoh.” Tristan said tapping on his own controller. “I mean Mokuba idolizes his brother. For years he acted like I but couldn’t do anything wrong and how does he get repaid? He gets ditched because his brother can’t let things go. I feel sorry for the kid. It wasn’t for the fact that Kaiba has legal custody I tell him the move out and come stay here with us.”   
Joey nodded, smiling to himself. He had had the same thought, and so had the rest of the gang. Yugi’s Grandfather had made it clear to Mokuba that he was more than welcome to move into the house, having grown quite found of the boy since he started coming around without his brother.   
Of course, the older man’s opinion of the elder Kaiba had only gotten worse once he realized what he had done, and now, knowing that the brunet was back and acting like nothing had changed only made it worse. Yugi had told the gang about the lecture he had received from his grandpa about getting into bed with thieves, which had surprised all of them.   
“What time is Yugi coming over?” Tristan asked looking at the screen and interrupting Joey’s thoughts.  
“He should be here in a few minutes. He wanted to go check at the train station to see if maybe somebody matching Yami’s description was all had been seen there.” They still haven’t seen any sign of Yami, but Bakura had showed back up at Ryou’s the morning after he left, covered in scratches, and refusing to answer where he had been. Tea had left yesterday for her next audition, leaving the former host and parasite to live together.   
Joey had once again offered to have Bakura come stay with them but Ryou had refused. He didn’t want to show any kind of weakness to as a former Yami, not wanting the spirit to think that he could treat then the way he had before. Bakura for his part had been quiet ever since he came back, barely speaking to any of them.   
However, he did join in the hunt for yami, swearing to Ryou and Yugi he didn’t know why the other man haven’t made it over with them. He insisted that Yami had been told that he was going to be coming too and was just as perplexed as everybody else why they couldn’t seem to find him.   
“I think he was gonna go pick up Ryou and Bakura as well. We’re gonna pull out some Maps and see where we haven’t looked for Yami that maybe he could be. Joey said looking back at the screen. Tristan nodded tapping on a few more buttons. Duke was working on closing his game shop, and then he would be over as well. Even though it was gonna be late when they all got together, the boys were still going to spend some time together and try to come up with a strategy to figure out what their next step was.   
“I just wish we knew where he was. I hate seeing Yugi like this.” Tristan muttered. Joey agreed. It was miserable watching Yugi right now, he was more upset than when Yami had first left. The thought of the former pharaoh wandering the streets lost and tired and hungry and confused kept running through Yugi’s mind. There had been a discussion about putting up posters, but not knowing what Yami would look like stopped them. Bakura different from how he had before, less like a carbon copy of Ryou and more like his Egyptian ancestor. His facial structure had changed immensely, as well as his built. Would Yami look the same, or would he look more like his Egyptian ancestor as well? Joey shook his head, clearing his thoughts. Tristan was about to win their game, and the blond wasn’t having it.   
Several minutes later knock on the door caused Joey to lose his concentration, losing the game. Tristan whooping and yelling congrats for himself.   
“It’s open!” Joey yelled and Yugi came in, followed by Ryou and Bakura.   
“Hey guys what’s going on” Tristan greeted, getting up from the couch “I get out the snacks.”   
Joey turned off the game, smiling reassuringly at Yugi who couldn’t quite return it. “I brought a map with me.” He said instead, holding up the folded-up piece of paper for them all to see. “I thought we could cross out the areas we had looked and try to think of places that Yami might be.”   
“You mean places that maybe held some kind of significance to him?” Joey question, tilting his head in thought.   
“Yeah like the docks, or maybe where we met up for The Battle City tournament?” Tristan suggested, shrugging.   
“We’ve already checked there.” Joey said shaking his head. “I mean really we would have to search the entire city again. Any place that was part of battle city he could show up at. He could have appeared in the middle of the ocean.” Bakura suggested, causing everybody to look at him in alarm. “Where you guys fought that Atlantis guy, he could have showed up there and drowned.”   
“Bakura!” Ryou yelled looking overhead at the former thief King in disgust. “If you can’t be helpful, you can go home!”   
“I’m just saying it’s a possibility.” Bakura stated shrugging his shoulders before plopping down on the couch. Yugi looked at the thief with horror filled eyes, trying hard to stop his lip quivering. He didn’t want to cry in front of the former spirit, not only because he didn’t want Bakura to see that he had gotten to him, but he also didn’t want Ryou to snap at the other man and cause a distraction.  
Bakura noticed Yugi’s face, making him feel a trace of guilt. He tried to offer some other suggestions.   
“I mean He could have landed on the island that you guys went to. Or that place where you guys got stuck on that game board with your Grandpa. Let’s face it, there are plenty of places besides Domino city that he could have shown up at.”   
“Well, what made you show up here?” Yugi asked, turning wide eyes to the former spirit. Bakura blinked, trying to remember.   
“I don’t know. I remember being asked where I wanted to go and ask who I wanted to see when I woke up. They asked me who I wanted to make amends to because this was supposed to be my second chance after destroying Zork. Obviously, I said Ryou which is why I woke up in his room.” The thief shrugged. “Maybe there’s something Yami felt he had to do before he came to see you. Maybe there is something more pressing than coming here first.”   
“I don’t understand though. Who else would yami want to make amends to? Everyone’s here.” Yugi insisted, shaking his head.   
“What about Pegasus?” Joey asked. “I mean, after all if all this wouldn’t have happened Pegasus wouldn’t have lost his wife. Maybe Yami feels guilty about it and wanted to go talk to him.   
“Or the Ishtar’s I mean if you want to talk about who got affected the most of I everything comma I think the people who got stuck living underground for generations would be at the top of the list.” Tristan added. “Or Rex and Weevil. Their lives went down the crapper as soon as Yami appeared. Even Mai could say he affected her negatively.” He added, thinking over the list of people whose lives they had affected.   
“I just can’t believe that he wouldn’t come see me first. I can’t believe that he’d want me to worry.” Yugi whispered looking down the map he had spread out on the table.   
“Maybe it wasn’t intentional. Maybe he thought of something quickly and before he could change his mind he was there.” Ryou suggested, looking over at Bakura who shrugged.   
“Could be. The former thief crossed his arms not wanting to get involved anymore in the conversation. He had been doing his own searching for his former nemesis, which was hard when Ryou didn’t let him out of his sight. He even dragged Bakura to his job at the museum. Luckily, since no longer look enough alike for people to notice, and Ryou simply explain it he was a friend of his from school that was looking for some extra credit work. With his father having worked so long at the museum nobody questioned him, and Bakura ended up being helpful.   
The two worked well together, sometimes Ryou would forget what Bakura had put him through. Of course, he would reconsider that as soon as he realized what he was thinking, shaking his head at the thought of Bakura becoming something important to him. Something told him that Bakura really was different and could be trusted.  
The next several hours flew by, the boys discussing several different areas that they could look for Yami. They also started looking at phone numbers, trying to get in touch with anybody they could think of that would possibly gotten a visit from the spirit.   
“I feel like if he would have shown up in any of these places that we would have heard about it by now though.” Yugi muttered, thinking it over. “I mean if he would have shown up at the Ishtar’s Ishizu would have called immediately.”   
“Well maybe something happened that she wasn't able to.” Joey suggested, shrugging. “Maybe he asked her not to or maybe there was a giant Egypt-wide power outage that knocked out all the communication lines as well.”   
Yugi rolled his eyes at that, smiling to spite himself. Joey always knew how to make him laugh even when he was upset. The blonde winked at his best friend reaching over to give him a quick hug. “If he's here we will find him.” Joey promised and the rest of them agreed.   
“I can call Pegasus and ask him to keep an eye out as well.” Duke offered, always looking for a chance to talk to his mentor.   
“That’s a good idea. I was waiting to call but I would appreciate you doing that for me.” Yugi said, sign again.   
“Now I know this is very important to all of us but how about we take a break for a little bit?” Tristan suggested eyeing the game console. “Maybe playing a couple of games will help us clear our minds.” They all agreed and soon enough they started a tournament to see who could play the best round of Mario Kart. Laughing and joking around like boys would, Bakura watching them with narrow eyes.


	4. Chapter 4

Yugi trudged up the stairs to get ready for bed. It had been another day of pointless searching for Yami in between work and school. Kaiba had gotten in on the searching as well, deploying any forces he could come up with. Yugi was getting to think that he was he hadn’t come home, the thought depressing him more than anything. Opening his bedroom door slowly Yugi grabbed his PJ’s off the top of his dresser, trekking towards the bathroom. He was so tired; he didn’t even notice the sleeping naked form of the man he been waiting for lying quietly on his bed.

Once he finished his shower, Yugi brushed his teeth, running a towel through his hair to dry it. Getting dressed for bed, he yawned again, deciding to curl up and watch TV for a bit before going to sleep. Starting to walk down the stairs, he stopped, his tired brain finally computing what his eyes had seen, the light turning around and running up the stairs.

Yugi approached him quietly, gently touching his other’s arm. It was warm- an actual flesh and body, not just a figment of his imagination that he talked too. Yugi started to cry, big, fat tears that wouldn’t stop no matter how hard he tried. For the past few years, he had tried to put the memories of the Pharaoh to rest like the rest of the gang, and he thought he had moved on-he thought he was finally happy.

Seeing Yami here just reminded him of how miserable he truly was, and how much he had missed the other man’s influence in his life. Backing out of the room, he ran downstairs, into the living room where his grandfather was dozing in a chair.

“Yugi?” Solomon questioned, opening his eyes to look at his grandson.

“I’m sorry grandpa, go back to sleep.” Yugi muttered, wiping his eyes carefully. “

Nonsense. I’ve got plenty of time to sleep. Now, what’s going on?” Yugi was unable to answer, pointing only upstairs with a shaking finger.

“Yugi, I’m an injured old man. Please don’t make me walk up those stairs.” His grandpa asked, struggling to pull himself up as he spoke. Yugi dropped to the floor in front of him, placing his face against his grandfather’s knee, taking a deep breath as the old man stroke his hair like he used to when Yugi was young and frightened of everything.

“He’s upstairs grandpa. He’s come back to me.”

X

After trying unsuccessfully to wake Yami up, Yugi spent the rest of the night on the couch, dozing off several times only to jerk awake when he thought he heard Yami calling for him. His mind was swirling. Where had Yami been? Why had he come back now? What had happened during those two years that Kaiba had been gone? Grandpa had gone to bed hours ago, promising Yugi that they would figure it all out in the morning. Yugi had started to text his friends, but then he stopped. He wanted a chance to speak to Yami alone. He dozed off as the clock struck 4:00 AM only to jerk awake several hours later with Yami staring right at him.

“Yami?” The shorter boy quested, looking at the former spirit. Yami reached a hand out, touching Yugi’s cheek. Yugi could fell the tears welling up in his eyes. Yami really was here. He wasn’t a spirit, someone who floated around next to him having longer conversations, or a voice in his head. He was a flesh and blood person that Yugi could touch. Without even thinking, Yugi pushed Yami’s hand aside before grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him close for a kiss.

X

Joey was just trudging home after his latest shift to work exhausted. The craziness of the past few weeks was catching up with him, and right now, all Joey wanted was to go home and take a long nap. Tristan had texted him before bed last night to let him know that Mokuba had not signed on to play again. They hadn’t heard from the Raven haired Kaiba brother since the elder one came back, and both boys were concerned.

Unfortunately, they’re both spread thin right now, and since Mokuba was the safest out of their three friends in crisis, they had to leave him on the wayside for now. Joey vowed once he got up from his nap to make his way over to Kaiba Corp, using the credentials that Mokuba had given all of them to get in. Hopefully Kaiba hadn’t found out about them yet and revoke them.

For now, he trudged into his apartment, nodding to Tristan as the brunet was running around getting ready to leave for work. This was how most of their days went, the two of them working and going to school, only seeing each other in passing.

“Is Duke here?” Joey asked, nodding towards Tristan’s bedroom door.

Tristan nodded.

“He’s taking a shower. I told him you be home when he got out to try to be quiet.” Joey nodded, collapsing on the couch. Only three months of this left. He muttered rolling his head around.

“Oh, Yugi’s Gramps called by the way.” Tristan said. “Apparently we’re off search and rescue. He showed up last night.”

Joey’s head snapped up, jumping off the couch to grab Tristan by the shirt. “What do you mean were off search and rescue? He showed up last night? Is Yugi OK? I gotta go see him.” Tristan grabbed Joey by the arms shaking him a little.

“Don’t. Give them a chance to talk before you go over.”

“Why didn’t gramps call me?” Joey ask frowning.

“He did. He said you didn’t answer.” Tristan said, looking at the phone in Joey’s hand. Sure enough, it had shut off again, even though the battery was charged. The phone was an old one of Mokuba’s that the boy had sold Joey, offering to get him a newer one but the blond had refused.

“Great. So, Yug’ needed me and I wasn’t even there.” He plopped on the couch again, sighing and shaking his head in disgust at himself.

“Yugi is fine.” Tristan told him, grabbing the keys to his bike. Grandpa said he would have him call you once they all get a chance to talk. I need to go; get your nap in that way you’ll be ready when Yugi is. I sent Ryou a text to let him know as well, I’ll let you know if he responds.” Joey nodded, laying down the couch and putting it his feet up on the back of it. Always a heavy sleeper, he was passed out before Duke even finished his shower, not even flinching when the Raven-haired dice master stomped through the apartment getting ready to go open his own shop.

X

Ryou was in the cramped office space had been offered at the museum trying to come up with a design for the new Dinosaur exhibit. It was going to be a traveling six months exhibit, displaying some bones that had been found not far from Domino, and putting it together had been no small feat.

Originally, the museum owners had wanted to place it in one of the larger cities, but Ryou’s father had convinced them that Domino was the perfect in between place to start the tour. He then left the placement of the objects up to his son before he took off for England again, and Ryou was determined to make his father proud of him. After all, he had given his father so little reason to be proud of him in the past.

“Maybe if we move this over here…” He muttered measuring out space on his grid chart. Bakura was sitting in the corner, his arms crossed and looking like he was dozing. Ryou was glad for that. The former spirit didn’t sleep much at night, the fact that he really could hear him up and moving around the house disturbed the white-haired male. So far, he hadn’t done anything to really cause alarm, and they wanted to keep it that way.

That didn’t work either. Even though these diagrams would be approved by the board before they got put into place, Ryou wanted to have as few flaws as possible that for them to pick over. When he got this assistant job right out of school, there was many questions of nepotism because he was a curator son. Luckily, Ryou was also extremely smart, and had proven that he could work hard and do the job since he was pretty much raised to do it. He tried again, getting so involved in his diagram that he didn’t notice Bakura had woken up and was looking at him curiously, nor did he feel it when the thief snuck over to his side, looking over his shoulder at the diagram.

In fact, it wasn’t till Bakura touched the paper that Ryou notice where he was so close, jumping as Bakura spoke. “What is this?” He asked, Indicating the paper in front of them.

“This is the schematics for the new Dinosaur exhibit we’re putting in. They dug up some fossils about 10 years ago, and they’re finally ready to put them on display.”

Bakura looked confused. “Dinosaurs?” Ryou nodded, looking up at Bakura’s face.

“Dinosaurs are animals that lived millions of years ago. They’re actually pretty cool.” Ryou reached over pulling out an encyclopedia that was sitting by his desk and handing it to Bakura, who thumbed through it, looking at the pictures with interest. His eyes lingered on a picture of a T Rex, showing the size of his teeth in comparison to a human. Wordlessly he handed the book back to Ryou, shrugging.

“I know they don’t seem so impressive after playing duel monsters.” Ryou laughed, placing the book back down. “But people are fascinated with them. Even though my father studied Egyptology, He also has done some paleontology in the past. He was part of this dig that was done, even though he wasn’t part of the group had found the fossils.” Ryou looked at Bakura with a soft smile on his face. The thief smiled back in surprise. This was the longest conversation he had had with anybody since he came back, and he wanted to use his host good mood to answer some questions.

“So, what’s gonna happen now?” He asked abruptly causing Ryou to look at him. Bakura had listened to the call at the other man had gotten from Yugi’s Grandfather, and he knew that Yami had finally shown up. Part of him had been hoping that wouldn’t happen, It was bad enough had to deal with the rest of the friendship gang but having their leader back meant that there would always be somebody around sticking their nose in his business which is the last thing he needed.

Ryou shrugged looking back down at the diagram with a frown. “Once I get this done, we’re gonna go over to the Game Shop. I expect that you will be polite.” He said looking Bakura straight in the eye. Bakura frowned not enjoying the backbone that his other half had grown in the two years that he had been gone.

Rolling his eyes, he scoffed, giving Ryou his best dirty look. Still his lighter half ignored at simply picking up pencil to erase online one more time.

“If you’re not going to help go sit back down. I got enough to deal with without having to deal with your attitude.” Ryou told him pulling out a calculator and typing in some numbers. Bakura flounced back to his chair popping down crossing his arms glaring at his lighter half who proceeded to ignore him yet again.

X

Grandpa opened a box, smiling when he saw the merchandise that Pegasus sent. Pegasus may be strange, but he knew how to design cards. The billionaire CEO of industrial illusions had been trying hard to make up for all the awful things he done, and while Solomon would never forgive him for what happened, he couldn't help but be impressed by the man’s mind.

Pulling out seven more boxes of promotional material, he worked on setting up his display, making sure to pose it in the prominently in the window where anyone could see it. Pegasus had made their shop of featured shop for Duel Monsters, staying that had to be because the King of Games helped run it. He also gave Yugi money to research and create his own games, handing over a black Amex with unlimited spending, Yugi’s name glossed on the front. Yugi, of course had thrown it out, refusing to spend the man’s money, but another one it showed up several days later made him realize Pegasus was going to keep sending them until he accepted.

Solomon shook his head, bringing himself back to the present. Right now, he needed to tend to the shop, and check on his grandson. Yami had been awake when he came downstairs that morning, but the Pharaoh have refused to speak to him, only indicating that he was going to wait for Yugi to wake up. Solomon had agreed, getting the form former monarch a cup of tea after he made one and fixing himself a quick breakfast before he trudged out front to accept his early morning shipment.

Once that was done, he had poked his head back in only to see Yugi still asleep, Yami curled up in a chair watching him. He had then opened the shop, figuring that he would check on the boys after about an hour. He occupied his time by dusting, checking his watch impulsively several times a minute. Finally, the hour passed, and since there wasn’t anybody in the store yet, so he decided that he probably could sneak up for a quick peek.

Just then the door flew open and Solomon jump back, looking at Kaiba who was bracing himself in the doorframe heaving.

“Where. Is. He.” The CEO snarled; managing to take two steps forward before he started wobbling again. Fuguta appeared at his side, placing a hand in his employers’ elbow to steady him. Kaiba ignored him, choosing instead to glare at Salomon. “I know he’s here. I know he’s awake. Where is he.”

Solomon shook his head, not wanted to deal with the younger man’s drama. “When he wants to see you, he’ll call you.” The older man stated calming, crossing his arms, and watching the young CEO. Kaiba stumbled towards him, attempting to grab the elder man by his shirt but missing, and collapsing onto the counter. He weakly took a swing next, growling as he realized that he still hadn’t gotten his strength back.

“Seto.” Mokuba shouted, appearing in the doorway. “What are you doing? What is wrong with you?” Kaiba’s head snapped around, looking at his brother as if he was a stranger.

“Don’t you mind what I’m doing. You need to go wait in the car this doesn't concern you.” Mokuba glared at him looking like he was gonna punch him in the face.

“Not my concern? You’re going to assault an old man and you say it’s not my concern.” Mokuba yelled at his brother. Kaiba started too snarl, but the Raven-haired voice stopped him.

“No. No Mokuba I know what’s best. You lost the right to yell at me when you abandoned me. Yugi’s grandfather took me in when you left, and I won’t have you treat him like this anymore.” Mokuba said walking around the backside of the counter to wrap an arm around the older man protectively. Solomon padded him on the shoulder smiling.

“You don’t need to worry about me Mokuba. Your brother is just upset and tired and need somebody to take it out on. I can handle it I promise.” Still Mokuba glared, watching as Fuguta took his brother by the arm and pull him back, pushing him down into the wheelchair. Kaiba was still shocked from the way his brother yelled at him, and allowed himself to be pushed, crossing his arms, and glaring at all three of them.

“We need to get going. Please give our best to Yugi and Yami and tell Yugi I’ll see him soon.” Mokuba said, bowing several times to Solomon before backing out of The Game Shop. The older man nodded, watching as Kaiba’s head looked like it was going to explode.

X

“How could you do that to Yugi’s grandpa?” Mokuba yelled as soon as they got in the car.

“I’ll do what I want.” Kaiba snarled, glaring at his little brother. “You would be smart to remember who your family is Mokuba. Who’s taking care of you all these years and protected you?”

“Them.” Mokuba snapped back, causing Kaiba’s eye to twitch. “Who tried to save me at Duelist Kingston when I escaped with Pegasus? Yugi. Who helped me escape from Marik? Tea. Who invited me over for pizza when you were too busy? Joey. Who pay for a movie for my birthday while you were busy putting together another tournament? Duke. Who-”

“Enough.” Kaiba dead-panned, looking at his brother with narrow eyes.

“No not enough.” Mokuba stated, narrowing his eyes as well.

“You left Seto. For two years, I had no Big Brother. And you know what? Life went on. People went out, went to work, came home, ate dinner with their families, and went to bed. You know what I did? Lied for you. I lied to the board, to the school, and Child Protective Services. You know who help me? Yugi, Joey and Yugi’s grandpa. He took me in, Joey managed to forge your signature-”

“Excuse me?” Kaiba questioned.

“Joey managed to forge your signature on temporary custody papers so I wouldn’t get taken away. Roland helped me save Kaiba Corp from yet another takeover all so you can play some stupid game with someone who won’t even look at you now.” Kaiba shut his mouth, not sure of what to say. He’d be damned if he admitted that Mokuba was right.

“Are you done?” He asked instead, ready to end this and go home.

“No, but what’s the point? You won’t listen to me anyway.” Mokuba said, tapping the call button for up front. “Roland, can you stop, please?” The bodyguard did what he was told, and before Kaiba could stop him Mokuba had crawled over the seat and vanished out the door.

“Go after him.” Kaiba told Roland, who had rolled the partition down to see what was going on. The older man nodded to the guard next name, he slipped out after the Raven-haired boy. Within minutes, Roland nodded, turning the engine back on and pulling back into traffic. “Where are you going? Where is my brother?” Kaiba asked peering out the window.

“Young Mr. Kaiba has requested to take a walk. He will be picked up later.” Roland stated before starting to roll back up the partition while Kaiba fumed in the backseat.

X

“Are you sure it’s ok I’m here?” Mokuba asked Ryou, accepting a cup of tea. Ryou nodded, handing the bodyguard a cup as well as he bowed his thanks.

“Of course it is,” Ryou replied, tapping the young VP on the shoulder. “Tea’s been upset since she didn’t get that part for her audition. Having you here will help her get her mind off it.” He added, smiling.

“If you’re sure…” Mokuba trailed off, looking at the guest room door where Bakura was staked out.

“Maybe would help things to be less awkward around here too.” Ryou added, pouring his own cup of tea.

“Yeah?” Mokuba questioned hopefully just as his phone went off. He immediately sent the call to voicemail and shut the phone off. He was afraid of what he would say to his brother if he did. So, for now he figured ignoring him would be the best solution until he could come up with a better answer.

His guards phone started to ring and Mokuba rolled his eyes, listening as the older man answered several questions, telling Kaiba his little brother will be home later after he has dinner and not to worry. “Tell him to ahead and work the rest of the night if he wants to.” Mokuba growled in the background, causing Ryou to blink in surprise. He had never heard the younger boy speak like that- not that he would blame him, but at the end of the day Kaiba was his brother.

“Is there something you want to talk about?” The former ring bearer asked, looking over at the VP.

“No, I don’t want to talk about it.” Mokuba snap, immediately realizing what he had done and apologizing.

“This isn’t your fault Ryou. My brother is just driving me nuts. He has no respect for me or what I’ve done or what I’ve been going through or what happened while he was away.” Mokuba trailed off, wiping his face as he tried to hide his crying. Ryou wrapping arm around him, pulling the younger boy close while he continued to cry.

X

Joey rolled over on the couch, closing his eyes and attempting to go back to sleep. An insisting pounding meet his ears, and he buried his face in the pillow, attempting to ignore it. Usually, he could go back to sleep no matter what, but for some reason this was getting on his nerves. The pounding continued and Joey groaned, rolling over again.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” He muttered looking at the front door. Yesterday he had worked until 7 am, raced to the college for classes that morning, ending just before 1. He had gotten home, napped for two hours, then did homework before having to work a double that night at work. He hadn’t even made it over to Yugi’s, talking briefly to his friend on the phone who reassured him it was fine and to come over that night. Now, he just wanted to sleep but if that noise kept up, he wouldn’t be able to.

“This better be good.” He muttered, looking towards the door with bleary eyes and yawning. He tumbled forward, making into the door and yanking it open only to get punched in the stomach.

“Where is he?” Kaiba yelled, looking at Joey while the blond doubled over.

“Where’s who?” Joey managed to ask, trying to catch his breath.

“My brother! He didn’t come home last night and hasn’t come to work or gone to school today. Doesn’t he know he can’t just ignore me?” Joey shook his head, trying to clear his mind.

“What are you talking about?” He snapped.

“Mokuba took off yesterday and he isn’t responding to me or my text. His phone isn’t on and I can’t seem to trace it. So, where is he?” Joey rolled his eyes.

“You’re worried about him now? Where was this worry when you were screwing Yami and Bakura in the afterlife?” Joey said, backing into his apartment, heading towards the bathroom. “What? Are you jealous I found someone better?” Kaiba asked, causing the blond to freeze. He turned, walking back over to the doorway and grabbed the CEO by his tie. Plopping down on Kaiba’s lap, pressing their lips together in a bruising kiss, briefly sipping his tongue in the brunet’s mouth. He smirked to himself as he felt Kaiba’s responding under him, the brunet purring.

Kaiba was attempting to adjust himself to get a better grip on the blonde when Joey pulled away, pushing himself off the wheelchair. “Your brother isn’t here. Go bother someone else.” Joey snarled, walking into the bathroom and slamming the door, leaving a stunned Kaiba behind.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 8 month's later a new tournament starts a few adventure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to WavesOver for reviewing and to ZokuRumba for leaving Kudos

_8 months later..._

Joey sat in shock as he watched Yami’s life point’s scroll down to 0. Numbly, he looked down at his own counter, his brain not comprehending what was going on. Surely Yami had pulled out some last-minute victory from the jaws of defeat, just like he always did. 

In the distance, he could hear Kaiba’s guard Roland announce the end of the match, his name, Joseph Wheeler, and the word winner in the same sentence. Still it didn’t compute, even as the duel towers lowered and he jumped off, only to find himself immediately embraced by his friends. 

Yami gave him a moment, then walked over, eyes twinkling and smiling, stretching his arm out to congratulate him with a handshake and a hug. Serenity was at his side, beaming as she guided her still out of it brother to the podium. 

“I’m proud of you Joey. You never gave up, and you fought a great duel.” She whispered, hugging him again as Joey numbly climbed up the stairs towards Mokuba, who was attempting to hide his own shock at the outcome. 

Luckily, Kaiba wasn’t there, or else he would be pitching a fit right now, wondering what the loser dog was doing winning his tournament, even if it was just for charity. Even so, Joey figured that Yami would be hearing from Kaiba shortly, screeching about the ‘loser mutt’ and ‘3rd rate duelist’ being in his tournament in the first place. 

Mokuba gave a short speech, positively beaming as he handed Joey the trophy and the check. Joey smiled for the pictures, pulling his sister up to stand next to him for a few. Finally, the cameras stopped, and Mokuba pulled Joey away, leading him towards the back entrance where his friends were waiting. 

“Congrats man, that was awesome.” The younger Kaiba said, hugging Joey. “I’m so happy for you! That was one of the best duels I’ve ever seen you fight in.” He continued, oblivious to the fact that Joey was numbly walking behind him. The raven-haired boy continued to babble about sending him the check for his winnings and some sort of photo-op the next day with both Kaiba Brothers. 

‘I don’t want to see him.’ He thought, wincing internally. Somehow, he could sense that the brunet was in the building, stalking through the halls with his white coat billowing out behind him, knocking into people in his impatience to find them. Kaiba had been avoiding him since that morning in Joey’s apartment 8 months ago, and the blond couldn’t be happier about it. Really, Joey didn’t see a reason for that to change at all.

“… Pegasus will want to see you also.” Mokuba finished, looking back at Joey with a smile that slowly slid away as he took in his friends’ face. “Is everything ok Joey?” He asked timidly, watching as Joey instantly turned and gave him a huge smile. 

“Of course, it is. Just getting over the shock of winning a tournament that Yugi or Yami was in. I was beginning to think that it would never happen.” Mokuba nodded, watching as Joey looked away, his smile slipping for a moment before being plastered back on his face. 

“If you say so. Just remember, I’m here if you need anything.” Mokuba commented, ushering Joey through the door where he was instantly attacked by his friends, laughing and shouting out their congratulations. 

Tea was the first to hug him, the smell of her cherry blossom body spray jolting him out of his stupor, and for the first time since he won, Joey smiled a real smile. 

X

Yami stood back from his friends, allowing the group to attack Joey and shower him with praise and adoration. The blond deserved it- he had played a great duel and had obviously spent some time reworking his deck to beat Yami’s own. It was truly impressive, and he was proud of his friend. 

Of course, Yami could think of one person who would not be-a certain brunet who had yet to accomplish that feat. Things between the two men had soured considerable since Yami and Bakura had returned. Yami had managed to avoid the brunet for almost two weeks after his return, until the night that Kaiba had shown up at Yugi’s in the middle of a storm to challenge Yami to a duel, offering his help to make Yami and Bakura ‘officially alive’ in return. 

Yami had agreed, then promptly destroyed him the next day in their duel. He often wished he hadn’t- Kaiba was even more obsessed with him now than when they had dueled before, following him around challenging him to duels almost daily. His behavior had put a strain on everyone- Mokuba had even stopped talking to the gang for shortly after while he tried to curb the stress his brother was putting himself under. They had all given the brother’s their space until the day Mokuba had come up with a great idea- a 5 year celebration of Battle City, this time hopefully without all the drama. 

Yami had agreed to join, while Yugi backed out, offering instead to Co-MC with Mokuba instead, and playing in a few exhibition games against some of the other players. It had taken a few months, but the event finally happened, unsurprisingly coinciding with the release of Kaiba Corp’s newest dueling technology, which each participant received as part of their entrance fees. Yami sighed, tapping his disk thoughtfully. 

“Will this finally get you off of my back?” He asked aloud, having sensed Kaiba standing tensely behind him. The brunet took his last two steps to reach Yami, and the former Pharaoh could feel the anger just rolling off him in waves. 

“You did this to embarrass me.” He hissed, glaring at his rival. 

“Yes, Kaiba. Because everything I do in life is to piss you off.” Yami stated dryly, crossing his arms and looking over at the brunet. “Can’t you believe that Joey has actually gotten better? I mean, he’s good enough that Pegasus is sponsoring him now. He has access to the newest cards straight off the presses. That, combined with his natural abilities, makes him a formidable opponent for anyone.” Kaiba snorted at that, clenching his fists to his sides. 

“He’s not worthy of the title ‘King of Games’ and you know it.” 

“Well then, I guess it’s a good thing that Yugi carries the title then, isn’t it?” Yami said icily, looking sideways at the CEO. Kaiba’s stance was tense, and he was clearly about to explode. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He stated, sliding past Kaiba to take his turn greeting Joey. 

X

Mokuba watched Yami and his brother talk, holding his breath and waiting for one of them to explode. Theirs had always been a volatile relationship and had just gotten worse in the months since they had been back. 

Of course, the relationship between him and Seto had gone steadily downhill ever since he realized his brother had been willing to die just to play Yami in a stupid game. It wouldn’t have mattered if he had won, no one would have known. 

Once again, his brother had chosen his own selfishness over Mokuba’s well-being, and continued to ignore the fact that if it hadn’t been for Yugi and the gang, Mokuba would have been sucked into the foster system faster than you could blink an eye. He also choose to ignore that fact that Mokuba had been running Kaiba Corp by himself until one day the phone rang and suddenly his brother was back. No word, no warning, no thank you: Seto just walked back in and took back control of the company. Once again Mokuba was pushed aside by his brother’s ambitions, but this time Mokuba was not a little boy who would blindly follow Seto down whatever dark hole he was creating for himself. 

Mokuba was 15, filled with teenage hormones and resentment confronted his brother, letting go of years of stress and anxiety in one explosion, which had led to holes in Seto’s office walls and Mokuba being grounded for a week. 

They never talked about it, Seto telling him firmly that he was not going to tolerate that behavior and he expected that Mokuba would straighten himself out because he was a Kaiba. And Mokuba had, throwing himself into school to pull up his grades, and spending his free time with people his own age, answering texts from the gang when they asked how he was doing with lies. Then life got in the way, and he stopped responding to their messages, allowing himself to sink into the abyss of school and slumming around the mansion waiting for his brother to show up. 

During that time, Mokuba had gotten the idea to run this reunion tournament, Seto agreeing to it without even blinking an eye, not even caring enough to offer his brother any help or assistance besides giving him a date that he could hold it. Mokuba had done all the work- Seto didn’t even sign up to participate. 

Judging by the look on his brother’s face, however, he had been planning something. Probably a dramatic entrance after Yami had won to challenge him to a duel in front of the crowd, to embarrass the other man and finally win back his title from him, which Joey had ruined. Now he watched as Yami pulled away from his brother, grabbing Joey and wrapping him in a big hug, whispering in the blond’s ear. Joey blushed, looking towards Kaiba for a second before nodding and whispering back to his friend. 

X

“I still can’t believe that Joey actually won.” Duke whispered in Tristan’s ear, smirking. The raven-haired CEO pushed his bangs back, eyeing the pool table where Yugi and Joey were currently playing. 

“He’s been quiet about it too. Must be in shock.” Tristan whispered back, watching as Yugi knocked a solid ball into the corner pocket and then called for the 8. 

“He has been. I always thought he would be dancing on the tables if he ever won, I don’t think I’ve even seen him smile yet.” Duke answered thoughtfully, watching as Joey congratulated Yugi on another win. 

“He wouldn’t victory dance with me either.” Tristan pouted, frowning as his fiancé rolled his eyes. 

“Lucky for us. You both need to grow up.” Duke muttered. 

“Yea well, don’t forget all the things you love about me, which include my spontaneity.” Tristan teased, winking. 

“I’m going to get another beer, do you want anything?” Duke nodded, tapping on his own glass as Tristan made his way back to the bar. Bakura was eyeing them from the other side of the table, fiddling with his own glass. Duke eyed him back, not knowing what to say to the former thief. “Can I help you with something Bakura?” He finally asked, raising an eyebrow. 

“I was just wondering how Ryou can be friends with such nauseatingly nice people.” Bakura replied smoothly, taking a sip of his beer. 

“Don’t start Bakura.” Ryou said, smacking the former thief on the shoulder lightly. 

“You would do well to think of us as your friends too. I would think you’ve been here long enough-” Tea said, opening her mouth to start another friendship speech only to have Ryou kiss her, smiling. “Don’t think you can distract me.” She whispered as they parted, Ryou grinning like a fool. 

“Well, aren’t you two just adorable.” Bakura drawled, glaring daggers at Tea. She smiled back, blowing a kiss off her fingers towards him, causing the Thief King to blush like a teenager having their first date. 

“OOO.” Duke and Ryou teased, watching as Bakura’s face turned a murderous red. 

“Hey now, this is supposed to be a party. Why are you guys upsetting Bakura?” Tristan asked, approaching the table warily. 

“Oh, you know, just having a little fun.” Duke said, smiling. 

“Whatever. I’m going to go dance with Serenity, I’m not going to be here when the top explodes.” Tristan replied, placing down the beers in his hand before approaching his buddy’s sister and offering her his hand, which she was clearly grateful for, pushing away from a guy that had been attempted to talk to her. 

“Thanks for being my hero.” She whispered, kissing Tristan on the cheek. He couldn’t help but blush at that. Even though he ended up with Duke, his feelings for Serenity hadn’t totally disappeared. 

“Anytime. You know that.” He said, smiling as she kissed him on the cheek. Shanking his head, he caught Joey’s eye from the sidelines, giving himself a mental slap as the blond gave him a death glare.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Over in Egypt, Ishizu is having visions. Back in Domino, Kaiba comes to a realization.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to WavesOver and ZokuRumba for commenting on the last chapter! Enjoy!

“Close the blinds Ren, it’s way too early for sunshine.” Joey muttered from his spot on the floor. 

“You’re closer Joey.” She replied, buried under covers. The blond got up, pulling down the shade in hopes of getting a few more minutes of shut eye. He didn’t hear any movement outside his door, which meant that Tristan and Duke probably were still sleeping. Picking up his pillow, he buried himself underneath it to block out the light, drifting off into a restless sleep, only to be woken up by a harsh banging on his door. 

“Yo, Joey get up! Mokuba’s here for you.” Tristan yelled, rattling the door knob in glee. Joey groaned, pulling himself up off of the floor and staggering to the door. Serenity was watching him from her cocoon on the bed, smiling. 

“You look like you got hit by a bus big brother.” She teased, inching out of the blankets. 

“I barely drank too.” Joey mumbled, yanking the door open to glare at his friend. 

“What do you want Tris?” He barked, glaring at the smirking brunet. 

“We have company, and you have breakfast to cook my man.” Tristan stated, backing up as Joey attempted to punch him in the arm. 

“I hate you.” The blond muttered, stretching and yawning. 

“I know you do. But I suggest you go get changed because like I said, we have company.” 

“It’s just the rest of the gang looking for hangover food.” Joey said, patting his bare chest and adjusting his pajama bottoms, brushing past Tristan before he could say anything else. He walked down the hallway, stopping just before the living room. The atmosphere in the house was different, and he couldn’t figure out why. Shrugging, he poked his head out, only to have his eyes immediately drawn to both Kaiba brother’s sitting on the couch sipping tea. 

“Hey Joey.” Mokuba sheepishly waved, smiling. Kaiba’s blue eyes bared down on him, showing a hint of annoyance and disgust. Clearly, he wasn’t impressed with the blond duelist’s victory yesterday, and was trying to keep his temper in check for his brother’s sake. 

Mokuba sat there, trying not to stare at several scars he saw on Joey’s hip, quietly wondering to himself where they had come from, and judging by the way his brother’s body was tensing, Seto was wondering the same thing. Tristan came out then, handing Joey a t shirt which the blond quickly put on. 

“Joey likes to cook without a shirt on, then I have to take care of him when he burns himself. It’s kind of our after-partying ritual.” Tristan joked, settling on a chair. 

“I guess it’s true what they say about new tricks isn’t.” Kaiba replied snidely, gesturing to the chair, surprised when Mokuba elbowed him harshly in the side. He glanced over at his brother, noting the look on the raven-haired young man’s face before shutting his mouth.

“Yea, yea, I know, I’m a worthless dog yada yada. Who wants pancakes?” Joey replied, shrugging off Kaiba’s mouth like it was nothing, which clearly infuriated the brunet. 

“Ooh, are you making cinnamon strudel ones Joey?” Mokuba asked, drooling a little. 

“Only for you Mokuba. Everyone else gets strawberry and they better like it!” Joey replied, winking at the younger Kaiba, who cheered before getting off the couch. 

“Do you want some help Joey?” He asked, and the blond nodded as Mokuba followed him in the kitchen, grabbing a cookie tray and lining it with parchment paper before laying bacon out on it. Kaiba perched himself on a barstool, watching as his brother helped Joey. Mokuba seemed to know exactly what Joey needed without the other man saying anything and knew exactly where everything was.

 _They’ve done this before._ He thought, surprised at how annoyed he was. The 2 years he had been gone seemed like a blur now. Mokuba had told him how close they had all gotten, which was why when he had first come back from the Afterlife, he had put a stop to Mokuba hanging out with the group, too annoyed and frustrated with his constant defeat at Yami’s hands to allow his brother friends. 

Mokuba had agreed, backing out of several planned events with the group, telling them that he was focusing on his relationship with his brother. The gang understood, issuing several invitations to both brothers, but not pressuring them when they didn’t respond. 

Several months passed this way, until Mokuba suggested his tournament idea to his brother, and Seto could not find a reason to turn him down, even though doing this put him in direct contact with the people he was fighting to avoid. 

Now, he watched as Mokuba chopped up strawberries for Joey, who was mixing batter. “Can I have cinnamon and strawberries Joey?” Kaiba heard his brother ask, and the blond laughed in agreement. 

“Don’t tell Ren, ok?” He joked, winking. 

“You better not be making Mokuba special pancakes without me again.” The younger Wheeler joked from the living room, walking into the kitchen only to check herself at the sight of Kaiba. “Oh, hello. Nice to see you again Mr. Kaiba.” She said, bowing slightly to the older man. 

Joey rolled his eyes, annoyed at how polite his sister was to him. “Kid hasn’t had pancakes in forever Serenity, forgive me for helping him out a little.” He stated, gesturing towards the cinnamon for Mokuba to hand it to him while his sister pouted. Joey shook his head mockingly, laughing. 

“Fine, I’ll make them for you too.” He promised, smiling as she kissed his cheek. 

“Well, if you’re just giving them away…” Duke stated, leaning against the fridge. 

“Fine.” Joey fake pouted, looking over towards Mokuba. “Someone’s going to have to do a store run for me then. I don’t have enough supplies.” 

“I’ll text Yugi, what do you need. Dozen eggs, cinnamon, and a bag of apples.” Duke nodded, quickly typing into his phone before leaving the kitchen. He would be cleaning up afterwards, so there was no point in being in the way right now. 

“Ren, can you whip up some cinnamon butter please? Mokuba, stop with the strawberries and start cutting up apples.” Both kids nodded, taking up their respective tasks without a word. Kaiba sat there in silence, one hand wrapped around his mug, the other checking his email. He completely blocked out the rest of the room, so he was surprised when a plate was shoved into his elbow. 

“Eat up Kaiba, first one’s on the house.” Joey said, turning back to his flipping. Kaiba frowned, looking down at the plate. The pancake looked harmless enough, and he poked at it uncertainly. 

“What is on it?” “Just some cinnamon and brown sugar. I didn’t give you too much because I know you don’t like sweets, so if you want more let me know. I threw some apples on the plate, and there’s some cinnamon butter to spread on it too, and we have maple syrup if you need it.” Joey said, plating his next pancake and handing it off to Mokuba, who took it out of the kitchen, opening the front door and gesturing Roland inside before giving him the plate, which the guard took happily. 

Yugi arrived shortly after, dragging in Yami, Ryou, Bakura, and Tea. Joey got them all served quickly, scrapping out the last bit for his own pancakes. Eyeing Kaiba’s empty plate, he casually tossed another one on, noting how the CEO’s head nodding in thanks. Tristan had made coffee and tea for everyone, and finally Joey shut off the burner, grabbing his own plate and taking it into the living room, where room was quickly made for him on the couch. 

“I am so glad you don’t live with me Joey, I would be so fat.” Tea commented, patting her stomach. 

“You got that right.” Ryou agreed, eating his last bite. “Serenity, this butter is fantastic. It really complements the flavor.” He continued, running a finger down his plate to pick up a few crumbs. Serenity beamed, standing up to collect plates and place them in the kitchen for Duke to clean up. 

“So, now that we’ve all eaten, I guess you guys are wondering why we’re here.” Mokuba said, looking around sheepishly. 

“Mokuba, you know you don’t need an excuse to come see us, you are welcomed here anytime.” Tristan said, reaching forward to ruffle the boy’s hair. Mokuba frowned, looking over at the brunet in annoyance. 

“Sorry, I forget sometimes that you’re not a kid anymore.” Tristan said, holding up both his hands in a plea for peace. 

“Anyway,” Mokuba continued, giving Tristan the stink eye, “As per the agreement you signed when you entered the tournament, there are several interviews you must give as the winner. Couple of local channels, then the official Kaiba Corp press release. Apparently, one of the networks dug up video on your duel during Duelist Kingdom, so they want to do an interview about that as well.” 

Joey cringed, looking over at Yami in mock annoyance. “Do you think it’s too late for me to call back that attack?” He questioned lamely, causing Yami to chuckle. Quick as lightening, Kaiba was up, grabbing Joey by his shirt and shoving him into a wall. 

“Do you think this is a joke Wheeler?” He hissed, pressing up against the blond in silent rage. 

“Seto!” Mokuba said, attempted to pull his brother off Joey, but the rage that was brewing inside of the CEO made him too strong. This worthless duelist had done the impossible, had beaten the one person in the world that Kaiba himself could never beat, and if it wasn’t for the technicality that Yugi officially held the title of ‘King of Games,’ he would be the title bearing. 

He tightened his grip with one hand, swatting away his brother with the other. It was that movement that got Joey to act, the blond calling on his years of being in a gang to bring down the brunet. Of course, it also helped that Joey had shot up a few inches when he turned 18, much to his surprise, and there was now barely an inch height difference between the two. He landed a punch squarely on the CEO’s jaw, barely even noticing when Roland and Tristan pulled him up. 

Mokuba sat on his brother, using his own growth spurt to his advantage to keep the brunet down. “Joey please.” He whispered, looking up at the blond who shrugged off his handlers before leaving the room, Serenity trailing after him.

X

“Mr. Kaiba, there’s a Joseph Wheeler here to see you.” His secretary buzzed, and Kaiba sighed. He was still smarting after their fight yesterday, and the last thing he wanted was to see the blond right now. Unfortunately, he was bounded by a contract, and there was really nothing he could do about it. Luckily, there were little physical reminders of their fight, no bumps or bruises to be seen. He couldn’t say the same for Wheeler, which was the reason for this little meeting, to assess the damage and see if they could work together. 

Mokuba was currently livid with him, refusing to speak to his brother at all for the rest of the day. He still wasn’t speaking to him, going to school that morning without so much as a hello or goodbye. Kaiba knew he should not have reacted the way he did yesterday, but hearing Joey so casually dismiss his winning had infuriated him. He had been ready to rip the other boy’s head off, and had been surprised when Joey not only managed to overpower him, but managed to get him on the ground and get in a few licks of his own before getting pulled off. Joey appeared in his doorway, looking at Kaiba apprehensively. 

“Close the door.” The brunet stated, folding his hands and placing his chin on top of them. Joey did so, still lurking by the door as he waited for Kaiba to do something. “You can sit down; I’m not going to bite.” Kaiba said, smiling wolfishly. 

“I’m not scared of you. I just don’t feel like getting into another brawl with you. Already got my head chewed off for yesterday, I’m not looking for a repeat.” Joey snapped, easing into a chair. He rotated his shoulder, wincing slightly, and Kaiba immediately zoned in on his pained looked. 

“You should have my medical team look at that.” He said, picking up his phone. 

“I don’t need your pity.” Joey snapped, swatting irately at Kaiba’s hand when he started waving it in front of his face. 

“I don’t care what you need, Kaiba Corp has an on-site doctor in case of worker injury or illness. He’s on his way up now.” 

“I’m not an employee of yours Kaiba.” Joey snapped back, to which the CEO simply held up a pile of papers. 

“Did you not sign this contract when you entered the tournament? AS the ‘winner,’ you are obligated to make appearances for Kaiba Corp at several events, for which you will be compensated for. That, Wheeler, makes you an employee, albeit as temporary an employee as I can make.” Kaiba said, watching as Joey slunk down in his chair in defeat. 

A few minutes later, the doctor appeared, fussing over Joey for several minutes before gently popping his shoulder back in correctly and offering him a few aspirin, which the blond refused. He gently touched the bruises on Joey’s arms, offering him a sample of an herbal crème to help with the swelling. 

“He’s got some scars on the side of his head as well, is there something we can do with that? I don’t want the cameras picking them up.” Kaiba said, touching a faint line by Joey’s hair line. The doctor looked at it for a minute, rubbing it gently. 

“I don’t think that will be a problem, but if you buy some vitamin E tablets, they should help clean that up in no time. Just break one open and rub in on for about 10 minutes, then leave it on for about 20 more. Do it about 3 times a day, and that should fade, even though it might take a while.” Kaiba nodded, backing away. 

“I brought a sling for you Joey. Put ice on that shoulder every few hours and use this sling if your arm starts bothering you again.” Joey nodded, even though he knew well how to treat his shoulder. “I’ll check on you in a couple of days, make sure you are healing properly. If you have any issues, feel free to give me a call.” He handed Joey a card before turning to leave. “Remember, ice, rest, and keep from roughhousing for a couple of weeks ok?” Joey nodded, waiting in silence as he left. 

“Let’s begin. I have a couple of things for you to sign.” Kaiba said once they were alone. He led the blond to his desk, sitting down and staring at him. “We canceled the first press conference for yesterday, as I’m sure Mokuba told you. It’s been rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon; I take it that will not be an issue?” Joey shook his head no, clenching a fist. He had switched over to morning temporarily for his job, but he was currently only working part-time so he could participate in a few duels during his break.

“Apparently I’m yours to command Kaiba.” He joked, biting his tongue at the look he got from the CEO. 

“Follow me.” Kaiba said irritably, walking briskly past Joey. The blond arched an eyebrow before following, wondering what the brunet had in store for him.

X

Ishizu placed a hand on her chest, taking a deep breath in and out. She had been feeling tense all day and could not figure out the cause of it. Her brother Marik also noticed, wrapping an arm around her, and giving her a small hug. 

“Why don’t you go sit down sis? Odion and I can take over from here.” She smiled, thanking her younger brother and giving him a kiss on the cheek. The past few weeks had been rough on her, and there appeared to be no end in sight. Pegasus had come back into their lives, insistent that he had been seeing visions of the past, and that he needed their help. Ishizu was wary, but when she started having her own flashes, she couldn’t help but listen to the older man’s worries. 

Now they were digging again, looking for something that Pegasus had seen, and the deeper the hole got, the worse off Ishizu was getting. She could barely stand at this point, stumbling back to the tent where one of Pegasus’s guards was at. He offered her some water, which she took gratefully, sucking down the cool liquid quickly. He offered he another, which she took, drinking this one more slowly. 

“Perhaps you would like to go to the hotel?” The bodyguard-Kemo- her memory finally let her remember his name. 

“I do not wish to miss anything that might be found.” She replied, wiping a bead of sweat off her forehead. “I must be here in case I am needed.” Kemo nodded, looking over towards where Marik and Odion were focusing their dig. Ishizu felt a sudden rush of irritation at the man, even though she didn’t know why. She stood up, intent on proving that she was fine, when a sudden wave of nausea hit her and she collapsed, not even aware that she was laying in her own vomit.

X

Kaiba watched as Joey finished up his last interview for the day, smiling brightly for the cameras. He couldn’t help but be slightly impressed with how well the blond was handling the spotlight-it was almost like he was made for it. His current interviewer was clearly enthralled with him, having told both men before the interview she had been following him since his Duelist Kingdom days, which had just stroked Joey’s ego even more. She asked more questions about non-Kaiba Corp related duels than Kaiba would have liked, assuring him she was just trying to get some background material. Mokuba clearly adored her, grinning like a fool the entire time they were there. 

Finally, the lights were off, and Kaiba was free to leave, and to drag his little brother away from the other duelist. Nodding a brief goodbye towards Joey, he pulled Mokuba into their car, barely listening to his protests. “Seto, we have to give Joey a ride home. The bus doesn’t run on this side of town, remember?” Mokuba said, crossing his arms. 

Kaiba sighed, gesturing with his hand permission for Mokuba to get out of the car and grab the other man. Joey got in carefully, thanking Kaiba before buckling and clapping his mouth shut. Kaiba put the car in drive, pulling out into traffic, heading towards Joey’s place to drop him off. His mind was running a million miles a minute, thinking about everything that had been said during the interview. Finally, he came to rest on an off-handed comment Mokuba had made that he wanted to investigate. “What was that comment you made about soup?” He asked, looking over at his passengers. 

Joey snorted, covering his mouth and pretending that he was actually coughing. Mokuba looked sheepish, turning and staring out the window. “You were gone for a long time Seto. Life went on without you.” He said coldly, surprising the two older ones with his harsh tone. Joey watched as Kaiba flinched, and he couldn’t help but feel a tad bit sorry for him. 

“C’mon Mokuba, it’s a funny story, why should we keep it too ourselves?” He said, tapping the younger Kaiba on the shoulder. Mokuba huffed, still facing the window while he spoke. “We were at the diner one night after school. I was supposed to be at a meeting, but Roland cancelled it without telling me and had the gang ambush me after classes and take me out. We managed to snag a long enough table for everyone. Tristan and Duke were fighting, so Duke decided that he needed to flirt with the waitress in front of everyone. He ordered the soup of the day, French onion soup, and the waitress left. She brought back our orders, and Duke was too busy trying to make Tristan jealous to notice what was in front of him. He scooped it up, took a bite, and proceeded to spit it out yelling “It has onions in it.” 

Joey started snickered from the back, and Mokuba was cracking up. Kaiba just sat there, looking at the both in wonder. “Sorry, I guess you had to be there.” Joey said, still grinning. 

“That poor waitress almost fell over she was laughing so hard.” Mokuba grinned, glancing over at his brother before looking back out the window. “I hadn’t laughed like that in a long time.” He finished, clamping his mouth shut before he said something else to get himself in trouble. 

“Sure taught Duke a lesson. That was the last time he tried to pick up someone in front of us.” Joey added, looking out the window himself as the darkened city went by. Kaiba finally pulled up in front of his house, and Joey thanked him for the ride, reaching over the seat to pat Mokuba on the shoulder once before leaving the car. Kaiba waited for him to get in the house before pulling out, wincing internally at the tension between him and his brother. 

“You got really close to them when I was gone, didn’t you?” He asked, gripping the steering wheel, fighting off a wave of annoyance and anger. 

“I’ve been close to them for years Seto. You’ve just been too wrapped up in yourself to notice. Personally, I still can’t get over the fact that they have forgiven us for all the crap we did to them.” Mokuba said, looking out the window. 

“Are there any more fun facts about that time that I should know about?” Kaiba asked, eyeing his brother. 

“You’ve been back for months Seto. It’s a little too late to start acting like you care now.” Mokuba snapped back, folding his arms and leaning his head against the window. Kaiba opened his mouth to reply, then thought better of it, allowing the rest of the car ride home to be in silence.

X 

Tristan and Duke were sitting on the couch watching a movie when Joey got home. “Hey, how did it go?” Tristan asked as Joey plopped down on the love seat. 

“Great, until Kaiba started opening his mouth again. Somebody needs to get that man to relax a little.” Joey muttered, rolling his eyes. 

“I think he’s a little jealous that Mokuba got so close to us when he was gone.” Duke observed, shrugging. 

“Yea, well, that was his decision. He didn’t have to abandon the kid for years just to get the chance to beat Yami in a stupid game. He’s lucky he didn’t kill himself.” Duke held up his hands, smiling as he tried to calm Joey down. 

“I don’t disagree with you, but we all know how Kaiba thinks. He’s possessive of two things- Kaiba Corp and Mokuba. Our being friends with the kid threatens one, and you know at some point he’s going to accuse us of trying to use Mokuba to take over Kaiba Corp.” “True story, we should take bets on it.” Tristan supplied, grinning. “That reminds me, Mai called the shop looking for you today.” Duke said, trying to change the subject. “She said she tried calling you after you won, but she hasn’t gotten a response back yet. I told her you shut your phone off after the tournament because it was ringing so much, so she told me to have you call her whenever you get a chance.” 

“Yea, I probably missed her call.” Joey muttered, pulling out his cell phone. Almost as soon as he jumped off the tower, his phone had started ringing off the hook, most of the calls from people he didn’t even know. He had stopped answering after a while, setting his phone to silent and only checking for calls from number’s he knew. “Guess I should call her back then huh?” Joey said. Duke chucked a piece of paper at him. 

“She gave me a number for you to call, apparently some guy has been harassing her, so she got it changed again.” Joey rolled his eyes, laughing to himself. Mai was a spokesperson now for Pegasus, and she often went to events where she had to chat with business associates. Most of the time it was fine, but every once in a while, there was a creeper who thought her politeness was flirting and she would have to put him in his place. Pegasus always seemed delighted when she did so, impressed by his employee’s spunk. 

“Well, I guess I’ll go give her a call then. Enjoy the rest of your movie.” Joey said, sliding off the couch. 

Tristan watched him go before turning and looking at Duke. “If they start having phone sex I’m leaving.” The raven-haired man laughed, snuggling back into his fiancé’s side before turning his attention back towards their movie.

X

Yugi watched silently as Yami flipped through his deck, obviously working on some sort of strategy. ‘It really bothers him that Joey beat him, even though he doesn’t want to admit he.’ He thought to himself, frowning. 

The last time Joey had won had been after Battle City, when he dueled to gain back his Red Eyes. Yami had pulled several cards out of his deck to give Joey more of a chance, and sure enough the blond had won. They never spoke of that duel again, both only smiling when someone asked when Joey had gotten back his card. This time was different. Yami had fought his hardest, and had lost, something that had only really happened a few times before. 

The truth was, he had lost his old spark being separated from Yugi, and the proud, confident Pharaoh had drifted away. “Do you want to talk to Grandpa when he calls Yami?” Yugi asked, trying to distract him. Yami shook his head, thumbing his Dark Magician card. 

“You go ahead and talk to him Yugi, I don’t want to take away from your time with him.” Yugi nodded, leaning over to kiss Yami on the top of his head before leaving their bedroom. Grandpa would be calling from Egypt anytime now. He was on an expedition with Pegasus and the Ishtar’s, digging around Yami’s old tomb looking for some new artifacts. 

Ishizu had been having nightmares and bad omens for the past few months, and she finally thought she had narrowed down the cause of them, convincing Grandpa to come out and help her dig, since he was the one who had originally found the Puzzle to begin with. The phone rang, and Yugi picked it up, smiling as he heard the voice of his Grandpa on the other line. “Hello, my boy, how are things on your end of the world?” Solomon asked, his happiness of being back at work shining through the phone. 

“Great Gramps, How about you?” 

“Well, I heard that Joey won that tournament of Mokuba’s, I wish that I had been there to see it, looks like my hard work has finally paid off!” Grandpa joked, causing Yugi to wince. 

“Yea, Joey was pretty stoked about it once the shock wore off…” he trailed off lamely, not know ing what to say. 

“How’s the Pharaoh doing? I’m sure it was a big surprise to him as well.” 

“He’s ok, just a little disappointed in himself.” Yugi replied, glancing up the stairs to make sure that Yami wasn’t listening. 

“Well, he hasn’t had much luck since he separated from you when it comes to dueling. Maybe he needs to start perusing other interests.” Grandpa suggested, struggling to be heard over the sudden yelling in the background. 

“I’m sorry Yugi, I have to go. The bus is leaving in 5, and this old body needs to take a pit stop before we go.” Yugi laughed, telling his Grandpa a quick goodbye before hanging up the phone, leaning up against the wall and sighing to himself before trudging back up the stairs to where Yami was.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ishizu's in the hospital, while another friend gets ill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long, my last semester of college ended up taking a lot of my time... hopefully I'll be able to upload a couple of chapters this week before my next classes start! Anyway, thanks to ZokuRumba for commenting, and yes, it is try that Vitamin E can help with healing some scars. Also thanks to Tommy_Oliver and my guest for leaving Kudos!

“Marik’s in hysterics right now, I don’t know what to do for him.” Ryou told Yugi, accepting a cup of tea. He had gotten a call from Egypt, telling him that Ishizu was in a coma. Pegasus had offered to fly anyone out who wanted to come, but for now the whole gang was staying put, not wanting to be in the way. 

“Have the doctors figured anything out?” Yami asked, concern reflecting in his eyes. 

“They think it was sun stroke. Kemo mentioned that she was drinking a lot of water right before, and she was hot to the touch. Her internal body temperature was pretty high also.” 

“Maybe we should call Marik, let him know that we are here for him.” Yugi suggested, eyeing his phone. “I wish Grandpa would come home. I don’t like the idea of him exhausting himself for this project.” Yami squeezed Yugi’s shoulder, smiling gently at the shorter boy. When Yugi’s grandfather had announced his intentions of joining Pegasus in digging around Egypt again, Yugi had blown a gasket. Yami had never seen his lighter half act like that and did not want to repeat the experience either. 

“Your grandfather knows what he is doing Yugi, you have to trust him.” The Pharaoh stated, calmly taking a sip of tea. Bakura snickered into his hand, causing the other three to look at him. The thief whistled innocently, hiding behind his own cup. Ryou glared at him for a moment before rolling his eyes. 

The relationship between the former host and parasite had not improved much in the past few months, even though Bakura had been trying hard not to push Ryou’s buttons. Joey and Tristan had constantly offered to let the former thief live with them but Ryou had refused. Bakura would continue to be his burden, much like he was back when Ryou was in possession of the ring. 

“Is there something you would like to add?” Yami questioned, raising an eyebrow at his nemesis. 

“Nope.” Bakura said, placing down the tea with a frown. His mouth was suddenly feeling very numb, and he could hardly open it to talk. Standing up slowly, he managed to take several steps towards the bathroom before falling like a sack of potatoes to everyone’s startled cries. 

X 

Kaiba stared at his screen, lost in thought. Mokuba had somehow installed a deadbolt on the connecting door between their offices so Kaiba could no longer waltz in and check on him whenever he felt like. The brunet was fuming, but he was so tied up in his work that he didn’t have time to deal with what he felt was typical teenage rebellion. Instead, he tried to concentrate on putting out several fires at once, which worked well until his mind started to drift off and he thought about his brother again. 

Joey was currently in Mokuba’s office, chatting away about something. The blond had showed up over an hour ago, Cynthia waving him into Mokuba’s office without batting an eye. The only reason Kaiba even knew he was here was a message from security informing him that someone on Mokuba’s list had just walked through the doors. Ever since then, Kaiba had been distracted. It was strange being around the blond again after months of silence from him. Unconsciously Kaiba brought a hand to his lips, jerking it away with a frown. Joey’s kiss when he had first come back may had drugged up memories of when he thought he had a thing for the mutt, but that was all they were-memories. 

Scooting away from his desk, he grabbed his phone, intent on taking a quick walk to clear his head. Yanking open his door; he was surprised to see Joey and Mokuba talking to Cynthia quietly. Mokuba ignored his entrance, while Joey flashed him a big grin and Cynthia tapped a finger to her lips, giving her boss a look. 

“What are you doing?” Kaiba questioned, looking at his brother. 

“Eh, Mokuba was just going to join me for lunch.” Joey said, ruffling the raven-colored hair gently. “Would you like to come?” The blond added, causing both Kaiba Brothers to blink. Kaiba snapped out of it first, looking at his brother out of the corner of his eye. 

“No, I have more important things to do.” With that the brunet spun on his heel, marching back into his office, and slamming the door.

X 

Marik stood at his sister’s bedside, trying not to cry. Ishizu was currently in a coma, a machine hooked up to her helping her to breath. Odion was next to him, trying to comfort his younger brother. Even though it had been a few years since Marik’s personality had split, the older siblings often worried about what would happen if their brother was under extreme stress again. 

“Why don’t you rest Marik, I will watch over our sister.” Odion said, wrapping an arm around his younger brother’s shoulders. 

“I don’t think I could even if I wanted too.” Marik said miserably. 

“Pegasus rented a room in the adjacent hotel for us. Please, go lay down for a bit, I will have someone fetch you if there is a change.” Odion begged him, sighing in relief as Marik reluctantly got up. 

“Take care of her Odion.” Marik begged, hugging his brother before he left. As soon as Marik was gone, the bald-headed man sunk into a chair next to Ishizu, grabbing her hand and allowing himself to finally cry.  
X 

“You’re late man. I got off at work at noon, you said you’d be here.” Tristan said, looking up as Joey walked in the door. 

“Yea, and I brought some company too.” Joey said, stepping aside to show Mokuba standing behind him. 

“Hey Mokuba, long time no see.” Tristan greeted, hitting the younger boy in the shoulder affectionally as he settled on the couch. 

“He was just here last week Tris.” Duke said, slightly annoyed that he would have to scoot over to make room for the younger Kaiba. 

“I know, I know, but what can I say? He’s better company than the both of you!” Tristan replied, leaning over to kiss Duke on the cheek. Joey could’ help but roll his eyes, looking over at Mokuba with a sigh. 

“At least having you here distracts me from the love-birds.” He said, pointing a thumb at the two of them. 

“Just think, in a couple of weeks you’ll get to be around us all the time.” Duke said, smiling broadly at the other man. Joey groaned, wondering privately what he had gotten himself into. 

Duke had just signed a new contract with Pegasus and had decided to buy himself a house with the proceeds. He of course had invited Tristan to official move in with him. The brunet had balked, not wanting to leave Joey high and dry, but Duke had immediately extended the offer to Joey as well, telling the blond that he could just pitch in where he could until he was done with school. Joey had been relieved, mostly because what Duke was charging him in rent meant that he could stay part-time at his job instead of going back on night shift. 

Of course, there were compromises- luckily Joey was handy because he always had to fix things for his father, so he would help Tristan fix things up around the house on his days off. Duke had closed the prior week on it, and the other two would move in with him at the end of the month. 

“I haven’t even seen your new place yet Duke.” Mokuba commented, reaching for a chip. 

“It’s great. It’s three bedrooms with a huge kitchen and the cutest little shed that I’m going to set up for research.” Duke said with a big grin. Mokuba nodded, trying to fight down a little bit of distress. He had enjoyed having a place to run to when things got bad at home, and he was going to miss it. Tristan noticed, elbowing his fiancé with a pointed look. Duke nodded, winking at Joey who immediately disappeared into the kitchen, coming back out with a tray full of cookies. 

“I love your baking.” Duke purred as he ate one, grinning. Joey rolled his eyes, handing the tray to Mokuba before settling down on the floor. 

“What are you guys doing?” He questioned, and Tristan laughed. 

“Attempted to play some Call of Duty, but…” He trailed off sheepishly, glancing over at Duke. 

“You two are gross.” Joey muttered, rolling his eyes. 

“No worse than you and Mai when she’s here. I have to admit though, I never pegged her for a screamer.” Duke teased, flinching when Joey smacked his leg. 

“You know nothing happened between the two of us, so knock it off.” Mokuba couldn’t help but laugh at the look on the blond’s face. Mai had come to visit one week after a tournament she had been in. Joey’s room had two twin beds in it, one for him and one for Mokuba when he wanted to stay over. Mokuba had crashed one night, and Mai had forced Joey to share a bed with her. Halfway through the night, tired of his snoring, Mai had licked his face, causing Joey to scream and fall out of bed, waking the entire house. Of course, he couldn’t live it down and the rest of the gang took great delight in teasing him, even Mokuba. 

“Hey kid, that reminds me.” Duke said, wiping his eyes as he tried to stop laughing. “It would be a shame to waste that extra bed so…” Duke dug in his pocket, revealing a black house key with a Capsules Monsters logo on it. “Just wanted to make sure you were able to come around and annoy us still.” The CEO stated calmly, placing the key in Mokuba’s hand. The raven-haired man blinked, looking down in confusion. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Of course. It wouldn’t be home without our little brother crashing when dad annoyed him.” Duke said, flipping his own hair over his shoulder. 

“Thanks guys, this means a lot to me.” Mokuba said, looking down at the key. 

“Hey, we have a good time together. Just don’t tell your brother you have that I don’t want to deal with him freaking out about us hanging out again.” Duke replied, picking up the long-discarded controller next to him. Tristan did the same, and soon the boys were battling it out, taking turns playing and eating.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Updates on Bakura and Ishizu, meanwhile, someone else goes down... thanks to WavesOver for reviewing and leaving kudos as well as my guests!

Bakura slowly opened his eyes, blinking several times as he tried to figure out where exactly he was. It was dark outside, and the beeping of machines told him he was in some sort of hospital room. He had spent a lot of time in them when he had possession of Ryou’s body, and he found them just as distasteful now that he had his own. 

Attempted to sit up, he found he couldn’t, his right arm covered in some sort of hard substance. Trying to roll on his side, he felt a shooting pain in his chest, and he stopped, wincing as he laid against the pillows. 

A nurse came in, alerted by the beeping of his heart monitor, and smiled at him, gently helping him adjust himself on the pillows. “I guess I don’t have to ask you how you’re feeling.” She said, looking at the other man’s pain-filled face. Bakura ignored her, looking around the room again. “Do you remember what happened?” She asked, checking him over carefully to make sure he hadn’t hurt himself. 

Bakura tried to answer, but found he had no voice. “That’s from the feeding tube. It will go away in a day or so.” She promised him, nodding to herself. 

“You collapsed at a friend’s house. The doctor believes you had a seizure. Apparently, you managed to break your wrist and bruise a rib when you fell as well.” She told him, making a note on his chart. Bakura groaned, touching his side gently. 

“It’ll be ok. The bruises will fade, but you’re going to be here for another day just to make sure everything’s ok. You took a nasty fall and the doctor’s want to make sure that you didn’t do any more damage.” Bakura looked at her blankly, not really understanding what she was saying. “Let me call your roommate and let him know you’re alright.” She said, patting his arm reassuringly. Bakura shook his head, trying to tell her no. She just patted his arm again, smiling gently as she left the room. 

X

Ryou and Yami stood outside of Bakura’s door, unsure of what to do. Bakura had refused to let them in the room last night, telling the nurse that he just wanted to sleep, and he would see his friends in the morning. Ryou had been devastated all night, leading to Yami offering to come to the hospital with him, even though Yami doubted that Bakura wanted him there. 

Things had been awkward between him and Bakura since they had come back, even though Yami had quickly settled into a relationship with Yugi, and Bakura had gruffly settled into something with Ryou and Tea, there was still a lot of tension between the two former lovers. 

Sometimes when he was holding Yugi, Yami couldn’t help but remember how it felt to be wrapped around Bakura, exercising out all their hatred and resentment of what had happened in their lives. This had started before Kaiba even showed up, the brunet a welcomed addition to both, grieving spirits who longed to be with their lights. Now, it was strange being around someone he had known so intimately since neither would talk about what had happened before. Taking a deep breath, Yami cleared his head, nodding to Ryou who gently opened the door. 

“Bakura?” He questioned gently, looking at the lump on the bed. Bakura didn’t move, but by the way he tensed slightly gave away the fact he was awake. Ryou quietly approached the bed, reaching out to stroke Bakura’s hair. Someone had cut away a few pieces of it that had blood on them, leaving him looking ragged. Bakura had already chopped off most of his length shortly after coming back, leaving Ryou missing his longer hair. Bakura still refused to speak to him, and Ryou looked at Yami, begging him silently to do something. 

“How are you feeling Bakura?” The Pharaoh asked, walking over to the other side of the bed to look the Tomb Robber in the eye. Still nothing, and Ryou frowned again. They sat in silence for a few minutes before a knock came on the door, and a doctor poked their head in. 

“I was told you were here. I just wanted to go over a few things with you and some testing we will need to schedule him for. He’s given us permission to speak with you Ryou if you don’t mind.” Ryou nodded, looking over at Yami. 

“May I stay here with Bakura while you do?” 

“Yes. He’s already given consent for our treatment plan.” Yami nodded, approaching his former adversary carefully. 

“How are you feeling?” He questioned, pulling up a chair as Ryou and the doctor left. 

“How do you think?” Bakura snapped, pulling at his sheet. “I’m being treated like an invalid and it’s pissing me off. I just agreed with the doctors, so they’d let me out of here.” Yami patted him awkwardly on the shoulder, not sure of what to say. 

“I’m sorry.” He finally settled on, causing Bakura to glare at him before glancing at the door. 

“Shut that. I need to talk to you.” He finally said, and Yami listened, pulling the chair close to Bakura. “What was the deal you made to come here?” Bakura questioned, causing Yami to blink rapidly. “Don’t give me that look Atem, what was the deal you made to come here? I know you did something so you could see your little Yugi again.” Bakura told him, clenching a fist in aggravation. 

“I don’t remember.” Yami replied after a moment. “The last thing I do remember is sitting there, being told we can leave, and you guys disappearing. Then I closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I was in Yugi’s bed.” Bakura frowned, thinking something over carefully. 

“So your saying that you don’t remember a thing? Not ever our-“ 

“I remember that just fine. Any conversations that did not include us or Kaiba are missing. What do you remember?” 

“Nothing more than that.” Bakura admitted, reaching out for Yami’s hand. “Sometimes I think I remember a strange voice I can’t place, but I’m not sure where it came from.” 

“Male or female?” Yami questioned, leaning forward. 

“Neither. It doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before. I heard it before I fell the other night as well.” Yami frowned, unconsciously squeezing Bakura’s hand, reaching over with his other one to push the bangs out of the Thief’s eyes. 

“Do you miss it?” Bakura asked suddenly, his voice sounding far away. 

“Sometimes.” Yami admitted, brushing the hair back again before kissing Bakura gently on his temple. “But I wouldn’t trade what I have now with Yugi for anything, no matter how much I might miss you.” He finished, watching as a shadow crossed Bakura’s face briefly. 

“That seems to be the consensus around here.” 

“Bakura…” Yami trailed off, watching as the other male completely shut down, pulling his hand away and looking dejectedly away from Yami. The Pharaoh watched him, not sure of how to comfort the male. He knew Bakura had been having a hard time with the constant rejection that he got from their friends-even if it was unintentional. They had tried to let him into the group, but there was a lot of bad memories in the past that refused to die no matter how much they all wanted them too. 

“I’m sorry.” He finally trailed off lamely, wincing at his insincerity. 

“Do you ever wonder what would have happened if things would have been different? If my family would not have been killed by yours?” Bakura asked, looking over at Yami with narrowed eyes. 

“I don’t. I don’t believe in playing that game, it’s too dangerous for one’s mental health.” Yami replied, folding his hands in his lap carefully. 

“Of course not. You’re the one who got to be Pharaoh. Who got to grow up warm and comforted in a huge palace. You don’t know what I went through before we met, what people would try to do to me…” Bakura trailed off, running his hands through his shortened hair. 

“No. I don’t. I won’t pretend I understand either.” Yami told him, standing up. “Bakura, you and I have hated each other for centuries and I want it to stop. The sins of our parents have caused so much damage, it needs to stop before we end up destroying the entire world. Let Zorc go so we can all be in peace, please. Give yourself a chance to start over, to honor those we lost instead of using their memory to keep yourself from having a chance at happiness.” Bakura hmphed, looking away again. 

“Can you tell me more about the voice Bakura?” Yami questioned, hoping to steer the conversation back to where it was supposed to be. 

“No.” 

“Nothing?” 

“Just that I wish it would leave me alone. It’s the same thing that happened with Zorc, this sound in my head telling me something that I don’t really understand that’s supposed to help me but is only going to make things worse.” Bakura said, looking out the window. Yami walked around the bed, planting himself in front of the other former spirit. 

“This time will be different. There are people here who want to care about you Bakura. Let them, so we can figure out what’s going on.” Bakura shook his head, looking into the distance again. 

“I won’t let it control me again, you don’t need to worry about anything.” Yami couldn’t reply, instead he gently stroked Bakura’s hair, leaning forward to press their foreheads together, not even moving when Ryou quietly opened the door to join them.

X 

Pegasus wiped sweat off his brow, looking out into the distance. It was strange to be out in Egypt again- his days of gaining inspiration from old carvings were long passed, now he designed cards with whatever tickled his fancy. He hadn’t been back here for years- not since he had painted the God Cards and the disaster that had brought into their lives. Back when all he cared about was his dead wife and the pain and misery he was feeling. 

Now, his life had expanded, as had the circle of people he cared about and called friends. Yugi and his gang had been through a lot because of him, and Pegasus was forever grateful that they were willing to give him another chance. 

Indeed, back when everything happened there was not a universe where Pegasus could imagine Yugi’s Grandfather coming on a trip with him. However, the older male was currently standing beside him, looking at some ancient tools they had dug up to see  
what century they were from. Pegasus was grateful for his involvement. Working with the old man had been a joy, and he was extremely knowledgeable about ancient practices. 

“What do you think Mr. Muto?” Pegasus asked, indicating the tools in front of him. 

“I believe these are from around Atem’s time as Pharaoh. The materials and construction are about right as well.” Pegasus nodded with a frown. 

“Does that mean we need to look elsewhere then?” 

“I think some more time here would be prudent.” Solomon said, picking up a circular object. Looking closely at it, Pegasus realized that the object was a snake eating its own tail. “this is called the ouroboros motif. It shows a snake consuming itself to represent the eternal cycle of renewal that the earth goes through.” He stated, handing it over to Pegasus. The silver-haired male gently turned the object over, looking at the carefully carved details that had worn down with the passing centuries. 

“I’ve heard this myth before.” Pegasus said, looking the object over one more time before handing it back to Solomon. 

“This is what we were unburying when Ishizu because ill.” Solomon commented, placing the object down on the table. “Perhaps this has something to do with it.” He suggested. 

“You don’t think we released some mummy’s curse, do you?” Pegasus asked, only half joking. Even though previous curses had proven to just be diseases trapped in tombs, the truth was there had been enough craziness going on since he had developed this game that anything was possible anymore. 

“Could be.” Solomon said with a shrug. “However, these were not found in a tomb, so I think it’s unlikely. Perhaps Ishizu was spending too much time in the sun waiting for them to be dug out and didn’t realize that she wasn’t feeling well.” Pegasus nodded, looking back down at the object nervously. 

“That would make an interesting Duel Monsters card if I do say so myself.” Solomon nodded, looking back over at the men who were still digging. 

“I’m going to go back and help, perhaps you could document these for the government?” Pegasus nodded, glad to have something to do. He had attempted to help with the dig itself, but stories of his past had caught up to the men and the group they had refused to work with him. Instead, Pegasus was a glorified gofer, a role he had never thought he would have to play and which, quite honestly, tickled him pink. It wasn’t every day that the CEO of a biggest game company in the world (even though Kaiba Corp pulled a close second) was regulated to such a role, and he found himself enjoying mindlessly completing tasks so the group could concentrate on what they were doing. 

Pulling out a form, he began to carefully document the first object and where they found it at, filling out the details in his flawless script.

X 

Mokuba entered the mansion, kicking his shoes off and placing them by the door. It was quiet- perhaps his brother hadn’t made it home again tonight. The house had been cleaned that day, everything sparkling- Mokuba had cut back on house staff during the two years his brother was gone, giving the ones he had let go generous severance packages and helping them to find employment elsewhere. It wasn’t because he didn’t have the money- in truth there was too much of it- but he had too much house and not enough people in it to keep employees busy. Idle employees gossiped, and the gossip could turn into someone running to the papers about what was really going on at Kaiba Corp. 

Now, the staff was a few trusted people who rotated in and out during the week, bounded not only by non-disclosure agreements but also by what Mokuba hoped was respect for the brothers and their privacy. That left the mansion feeling even more empty, which only made Mokuba feel worse. 

Hanging up his jacket, he pocketed the key that Duke had given him, not wanting to risk his brother seeing it. Wiping a speck of dust off his sleeve, he thought back over his evening. Yugi had called to let them know that Bakura had woken up, and the older three had spent some time talking about what had happened to him and guessing about the cause. 

The fact that Ishizu and Bakura had gotten sick relatively close to each other did not escape them, but for now they could only guess on the reasoning. Mokuba walked towards the kitchen, intent on having a snack before he finished his homework. 

“You’re home.” His brother’s voice stopped him, and Mokuba jumped before glancing over at the staircase. Sure enough, Seto was sitting there, looking like he had just taken a shower, his brunet hair clumped together in wet pieces. 

“I didn’t want to come home too late. I have some math I need to finish.” 

“Did you have dinner?” Seto questioned, biting his lip when Mokuba nodded. 

“I was just going to put together a snack.” Mokuba said quietly, turning towards the kitchen again. 

“Why don’t you go get set up? I can get something together for you.” The elder Kaiba said, gently pushing his brother towards his study room. Mokuba rolled his eyes, looking towards the kitchen again. Seto would end up making him eat something healthy that would help boost his brain power, and Mokuba was not in the mood to deal with that. Still, he didn’t feel like getting into another fight with his brother, so he nodded, heading back to the door to grab his book bag before entering the room, shutting the door firmly behind him. 

Kaiba watched him go before entering the kitchen, pulling the parfait he had made for Mokuba’s desert out of the fridge. He knew he was bribing his brother to like him again with the desert, but he had honestly run out of ideas on how to crack the younger boy. 

There was a time when Mokuba would have sat down and listened to him without desert, but those days were long pasted. Picking up the dish, he carefully wiped the edges off. He had originally thought about serving his brother with the fancy sundae dishes  
they had, but after seeing how much Mokuba had enjoyed eating off Wheeler’s mis-matched dishes, Kaiba had placed it in a bowl. That affected the presentation, but hopefully not the flavor. 

Grabbing his own out of the fridge Kaiba frowned. He usually did not eat sugary things like this, mostly because it affected his brain so much. However, bonding with his little brother was more important now, and Kaiba hoped that Mokuba would appreciate the sacrifice he was making to help him. Grabbing spoons, he took a bowl in each hand and headed towards Mokuba’s study, hesitating for a second when he saw the door was closed. 

Knocking gently, he opened it, noting that Mokuba never bothered to look up at him. Placing the bowl down, he nudged it towards his little brother, watching as Mokuba barely acknowledged his presence. “I already had cookies at Joey’s today.” 

“I know.” The CEO replied, causing his brother to finally look up at him. “Joey texted me, asked if it was ok for you to bring some home. I told him fine.” Seto said, settling into his chair. 

“Why was Joey texting you?” Mokuba said, looking over at his brother. 

“I had messaged him to make sure you were alright. You didn’t come back after lunch, Cynthia wouldn’t tell me where you were, and apparently your phone doesn’t work in Joey’s neighborhood.” Kaiba told him sternly, silently kicking himself. Talking to his brother that way was not going to make things between them any better, but he couldn’t help it. Mokuba didn’t respond, leaving an awkward silence between the two. 

“Did you make this?” Mokuba questioned, pointing at the dish. 

“Yes, and don’t worry, there’s no peas in it.” Kaiba said, smiling at his little brother. Finally, Mokuba looked directly at him, a small resemblance of a smile on his face. When they had first moved into the mansion, their adopted father had allowed Mokuba to eat whatever he wanted, claiming the boy needed to bulk up a little. Kaiba had finally put a stop to it, telling his brother that he was going to start putting vegetables in his deserts if he continued eating so much sugar. Usually the remembrance of that conversation would get him at least a laugh, but for now he would take what he could get. 

Mokuba dug into his treat thoughtfully, not speaking to his brother at all. Finally, Kaiba couldn’t stand it anymore, and opened his mouth. “How’s the homework?” 

“Fine.” Mokuba said, looking down at his book with a frown. Mokuba was taking calculus this semester, and while he knew how to do the work, he hated the book that they were using. It’s descriptions of how and when to use different formulas were frustrating, and Mokuba found himself needlessly suffering along with his peers. He knew better than to complain, and just buckled down and worked harder. After all, with everything he had been dealing with in the past few years, a couple of hard math problems were nothing. 

Kaiba realized that his brother wasn’t going to start a conversation, and once again he was at a lost. Scooping his desert in silence, he sat for a few more minutes, watching as Mokuba worked through a few hard problems with his tongue sticking slightly out of his mouth. 

“Would you like some help?” 

“No, I’m almost done.” Mokuba replied, erasing something, and rewriting it. “Just want to make sure I show my work properly.” 

“Are you done then?” Kaiba asked, pointing to the bowl. 

“Yea, thanks.” Mokuba said, barely looking at his brother as Seto grabbed the dish and walked out, shutting the door quietly behind him. Mokuba looked up as his brother left, brushing a tear off his cheek, unaware of the fact that Seto was fighting from doing the same. 

X 

Ishizu rubbed her face tiredly. She had woken up the night prior to find Odion standing guard over her. He still dressed in his Tomb Keeper robes even though they had moved up to the surface several years ago after Marik had helped the Pharaoh, and the look along with the markings on his face caused several people to check themselves when they came in the room. Now he was holding her hand while the doctor was speaking to them, Marik on her other side, looking as if he was going to cry. She was too tired to reassure either of them, instead trying to focus on the doctor- a petite blonde woman from the US who was working for some international program. 

Right now, she was explaining a brain scan they were sending her for, talking about what they were looking for. Ishizu had a seizure, and they wanted to make sure it was because of the heat and not an undiagnosed medical condition. Since they have few records on her health care (Mostly because she had never been to a licensed doctor before) she would be forced to stay until testing was done to make sure there were no problems. 

Ishizu nodded, feeling both of her brothers squeezing her hands gently to reassure her. Once the doctor left, she looked up at Marik, who’s bottom lip was quivering. “It will be ok brother. I’m sure I just over did it.” She murmured, stroking the platinum hair. It was times like these when she almost forgot what her brother had done- when he was standing in front of her as a scared little boy afraid of losing someone, or when he was on the phone joking with one of the Pharaoh’s friends. She hadn’t been able to comfort him much when they were children with their father was around, and he rarely looked to her when he needed it now that he was grown. 

“Master Pegasus would like to know what the doctor has said. I’m going to give him a call, then I will pick us up some lunch.” Odion announced, bowing slightly towards his siblings. 

“Odion, you don’t have to do that anymore.” Marik groaned, pulling his chair up flush to Ishizu’s bed before laying his head on her side, allowing her to continue stroking his hair. 

“Yes Master Marik.” Odion said, bowing again before exchanging a look with Ishizu and leaving. 

“I feel like there is something you need to tell me brother.” Ishizu said, looking down at Marik. 

“I just worried about you is all.” Marik said, placing an arm protectively over his sister’s legs. 

“Have you talked to Ryou? How is Bakura?” 

“He’s out of the hospital, that’s all I know. Apparently, they didn’t feel the need to keep him for days.” Marik muttered, closing his eyes. 

“I know you’re upset I’m in here Marik, but don’t blame the doctors. I wasn’t taking care of myself and this is what happens.” Ishizu told him, closing her eyes, and leaning back against her pillows. 

“I know, I’m still angry though.” Marik grumbled. Ishizu sighed, stroking her brother’s hair as he drifted off. She didn’t want to tell him, but part of her knew that something big was going to happen. 

X 

Yugi opened his eyes, looking over at the naked form next to him. Yami very rarely slept under the covers with him, complaining that he was always to hot. That also led to his lack of pj’s- even if they were just cuddling, Yami would somehow manage to slip off his tank top and boxers at night. Yugi sat up, dropping a kiss on Yami’s shoulder before sliding out of bed to take a shower. 

It was his turn to open the Game Shop today, even though he had a few hours before he had to be downstairs. Getting dressed quickly, Yugi styled his hair, smiling at his reflection in the mirror. Yami had come back with a slightly different look- his hair no longer spiked out like Yugi’s but flowed over his back, the reds and yellows looking like highlights- and the Pharaoh had quickly decided to chop his off as well. His eyes had darkened, and his facial structure had changed as well, leaving them not looking like twins, which made things much easier in public. 

Yugi finished his hair, looking at the clock on the wall. Still plenty of time, but he wanted to get Yami up. Joey was going to come over to practice strategies for another duel, and Yugi was thrilled. Pegasus had asked them to go up against the Paradox brothers again for a charity match, and both had quickly agreed. Yugi liked it because the two were going to work together for once instead of being rivals, which hopefully would put to rest some of the bad feelings from Joey winning their last duel.  
Leaving the bathroom, he hopped on the bed, listening as Yami groaned. “Good morning!” Yugi chirped, leaning down to kiss him. 

“Yugi?” Yami groaned, opening his eyes. 

“You should get up. Joey will be here soon.” Yugi told him and Yami moaned again, looking over at the clock. 

“It’s only 8. Joey won’t be here for hours; you know how he is.” 

“Yami...” Yugi pouted, making the monarch moan again. 

“Yugi, I’m going back to bed.” Yami told him, rolling back on his side. Yugi pouted, leaning down to kiss Yami again before bouncing out of the room. He had breakfast, opening the shop up a little early when he saw people waiting. 

He barely noticed when Joey waltzed in, flashing him a smile. “Hey Yug!” 

“Hey Joey, Yami’s probably in the house somewhere, go ahead inside!” Yugi turned his attention back to his customer, answering several questions about different types of cards for him. The phone rang, and Yugi excused himself, picking it up. 

“Hey Yug?” Joey said, and Yugi looked towards the door. 

“Joey? Why are you calling me from the house?” 

“Um… don’t panic, but Yami fell and hit his head. I called an ambulance for him.” Yugi paled drastically, causing his customer to look at him in alarm. Dropping the phone, he ran inside, leaving several people in the shop. Joey was cradling Yami’s head, blood staining his pant legs. Looking up, the blond held a hand up, stopping Yugi. 

“He’s got a bloody nose. I don’t see any cuts on him anywhere, he must have hit the floor with his face.” Yugi got closer, leaning forward to look at his lover. Yami opened his eyes, blinking hazily at Yugi. 

“I’m going to go wait for the ambulance. I’ll close the store down; you stay here with Yami.” Joey said, gently getting up. Wiping his hands off, he checked his jeans, quickly grabbing one of Grandpa’s aprons to hide the stains on them. Yugi didn’t even notice he was gone, too intent on taking care of Yami, holding his hand while the ambulance came and he was whisked away to the hospital, Yugi still by his side.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashback to the end of school and Kaiba leaving... little bit of Joey/Kaiba thrown in there too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to ZokuRumba and WavesOver for reviewing, and my guests for leaving Kudos! Also, thanks to my readers for their patience, I'm trying to get a few chapters out to tide you guys over until I get done with the next semester! Note: this takes place a few days before High School Graduation until Kaiba disappears. It breaks continuity a little, but for plot related purposes only!

“It’s almost ready.” Kaiba said. He was currently on the KaibaCorp space station, looking at the Quantum Cube in front of him. He could barely wait to test it… just a little bit longer and he would have his graduation present to himself….

X

Joey ran into class, hurriedly dumping his book on the desk. It had taken a lot of studying, but he had finally gotten his grades up, and was getting ready to pass his last final before High School Graduation. None of his teachers could believe it, but somehow, he had done it. Yugi’s Grandpa had been thrilled when the letter came in the mail that he was going to graduate on time and had even had it framed and hung on the wall. Of course, there was one stipulation- he had to pass all his finals to get his diploma, but he was feeling good and ready to knock this last one out of the park. 

Kaiba entered then, sitting next to him, adjusting his coat tails dramatically. Joey couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Kaiba had taken to wearing his Battle City coat to school the last few weeks, the white material managing to billow dramatically around him even when there wasn’t any wind. Joey had noticed that the brunet was being a tad bit nicer as well- perhaps realizing that he was never going to have to deal with the ‘nerd herd’ again was putting him into a generous mood. Whatever it was, Joey was grateful, and the fact that this was his last time sitting in a school room with Kaiba thrilled him to no end. Nodding towards the CEO, he pulled out his supplies, dutifully sitting at his desk with his hands folded until the teacher passed out the tests. 

Working quickly, he managed to be one of the first students done and handed it. His teacher nodded his dismissal, and Joey cheered internally, bowing once as he backed out the door before taking off in a run, almost running into Kaiba who had left a few minutes prior. 

“You’re done?” The brunet asked coldly, and Joey nodded, not wanting him to ruin his good mood. 

“Just finished. Going to grab my stuff then victory dance my way out of here.” Joey said, flashing his famous grin. Kaiba rolled his eyes, obviously not impressed. “Come on Kaiba, I was going to treat myself to lunch with the gang. Join us, it’s the last thing you’ll have to do with us losers!” Joey teased, grabbing the CEO by the shoulder and shaking it gently. 

Kaiba pulled back, shaking his head. “Get off me mutt.” He muttered, and Joey frowned, stepping back a bit. 

“I thought we were over that Kaiba. Come on, your brother wants us to be friends, can’t we do that for him?” 

“Mokuba’s opinion on you doesn’t do anything for me.” Kaiba responded stiffly, eyeing the blond. 

“Fine. Be like that.” Joey said, turning away. 

“Do you know why he wants us to be friends?” Kaiba asked, stopping Joey in his tracks. 

“Nope. Don’t care either. I can handle being friends with the nice Kaiba brother.” 

“He thinks you have a crush on me.” Kaiba said, making Joey whip around. 

“Why would he think that?” Joey asked, feeling himself pale a bit. The kid wasn’t supposed to say anything about that! 

“Well…” Kaiba drawled out, looking in triumph at Joey. “He said that there was this conversation…” 

“Listen Kaiba. Don’t worry about it. It was right after Battle City, I got hit in the head by lightning and clearly was having some brain issues. I’m sorry he ever put the idea in your head.” Joey said, trying to smile.   
“That’s too bad. I have to admit I was intrigued by the thought.” Kaiba said, unconsciously straightening himself. Joey paused, unsure of what to say. 

“You were?” He questioned, taking a step back. Kaiba nodded, looking (slightly) up at the blond with a snarky grin. 

“Ah, hell.” Joey said, grabbing Kaiba by the tie and pulling him close, wrapping his arms around the other man’s neck as Kaiba pushed him into the lockers. 

When they finally broke apart, Joey rubbed his head, sheepishly grinning at the brunet. “That was one hell of a good-bye Kaiba.” He said, smiling at Kaiba. 

“Hn.” Kaiba snorted, pushing off the locker, allowing Joey to readjust himself. 

“So… I’m supposed to go meet the gang in a bit for burgers, you wanna come?” 

“I’ve got better things to do than hang out with you and the friendship brigade.” Kaiba responded, rolling his eyes. 

“Well, apparently your brother does not, he’s coming with us.” Joey stated, looking at Kaiba with narrowed eyes. The brunet frowned, annoyed that his brother was not listening to him, but he was too worried about his project to care. 

“Fine.” Kaiba said, turning on his heel to leave. Thinking better of it, he turned back, pulling the blond close and kissing him again. “See you at graduation.” He whispered before disappearing, leaving a stunned blond behind.

X 

Joey bounced on his toes, hmming along to the elevator music. Straightening out his tie, he glanced at himself with a smile. The gang was going out for a dinner tonight to celebrate graduation, hosted by Pegasus, who was desperately trying to recruit both Joey and Yugi to some project that he had in the making. Neither boy was interested, but that didn’t stop the older man from offering up his money for a fancy dinner on the nice side of town, slipping money to Joey on the way out to get a suit for the occasion. 

Joey was surprised at how differently people treated him in it, with his hair pulled back and his face and nails cleaner than they’d ever been. In fact, security had done a double take when he had walked into the front door of Kaiba Corp- fumbling over themselves to announce his visit to either Kaiba brother. Luckily Mokuba had answered, enthusiastically allowing Joey permission to come to his office. Checking himself out one more time, he dusted off a speck, turning on his trademark grin as the doors opened and Mokuba appeared. 

“Hey Joey!” The raven-haired VP said, giving his friend a hug. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to say this yesterday, but congrats on graduation!” Joey gave him a thumbs up, throwing in a wink for good measure. 

“You know how it is Mokuba. Everyone wants a piece of you when you’re the BMOC.” Mokuba rolled his eyes, smiling to himself. As soon as graduation was over, Seto had whisked them both away, stating that he needed to finish a project a work, not even stopping for the lunch that he had promised Mokuba to celebrate. That was why Joey was here tonight- picking up the Kaiba Brothers for dinner with Pegasus. Mokuba deciding it was the perfect way to punish his brother for not spending time with him. 

“Where’s Kaiba? Everyone’s downstairs waiting.” Mokuba pointed towards his brother’s closed door, frowning. 

“He’s refusing to come out.” 

“Well, I guess I’ll have to do something about that won’t I? Go ahead downstairs, we’ll be down in a minute.” Mokuba nodded, glancing back at his brother’s door hesitantly. “Don’t worry about it Mokuba. Go.” Joey said, pushing Mokuba onto the waiting elevator and hitting the ground button. As soon as he disappeared, Joey checked his hair again, puffing it up just a little bit more. He hadn’t talked to Kaiba since that weird kiss at school, and he wanted a chance to talk to the brunet before dinner. Knocking briefly, he opened the door, peeking in to see Kaiba missing. 

“Kaiba? He questioned, walking into the room. Quiet met his ears, and he frowned, wondering where he could have gone. Sitting down in a chair, he folded his hands in his lap, waiting for Kaiba to come back from wherever he was. A few minutes went by, and Joey began to wonder if he should go look for the brunet. Not knowing what to do, he sat there, tapping on the desk. Another few minutes went by, and just as he was getting into his best Dave Grohl impression, a hand slapped down on top of his, Kaiba’s voice whispering into his ear. 

“You mind, mutt?” Joey jumped slightly, looking up at Kaiba and blinking. 

“Where have you been?” Kaiba didn’t response, just pointed at the wall. Joey peer over, realizing that Kaiba had his own bathroom which blended seamlessly into the wall. “Oh.” 

“What are you doing here?” Kaiba asked, arching a brow. 

“I came up to get you. We were supposed to be going to dinner with Pegasus tonight.” Joey said, straightening his jacket, suddenly very aware of the fact that Kaiba was not wearing one. 

“I thought maybe you came to finish our conversation from the other day.” Joey blinked before turning beet red. 

“I didn’t come up here for that!” He snapped, then pulled back. “Well, not just for that. I wanted to see if we could talk sometime.” Kaiba didn’t respond, choosing instead to put on his tie and suit jacket. Motioning for Joey to stand up, he eyed the blond appraisingly, causing Joey to shuffle nervously. 

“You’re always a mess, even when you try not to be aren’t you Wheeler?” Kaiba questioned, stroking a strand of blond hair before reaching for Joey’s tie and quickly fixing it before kissing him. 

“Perhaps lunch in a few weeks? I’m in the middle of a project, but once that’s done, I can make some time.” Kaiba said when they broke apart, and Joey nodded, giving Kaiba his trademark goofy grin before following the other man downstairs.

X 

Mokuba pounded on Yugi’s door, crying. He didn’t know where else to go, and he cursed his brother’s stupidness. 

“Yugi, please, open up!” Mokuba cried, feeling the tears starting to slowly leak down his face. Finally, the door did open, but instead of it being his friend, it was Yugi’s Grandpa a perplexed looked on his face. 

“Mokuba? What is wrong?” The old man questioned, taking in the boy’s appearance. 

“Is Yugi here?” Mokuba managed to ask, trying to hold back his tears. 

“No. He’s at Tea’s right now. Is something wrong?” Mokuba shook his head no, not wanting to involve Yugi’s Grandpa in his fight with his brother. 

“Mokuba?” The older man questioned, placing a hand on the teen’s shoulder. That did it, Mokuba burst into tears, burying his face in his hands and sobbing. Yugi’s Grandpa quickly grabbed him, maneuvering the smaller boy into the house, and shutting the door. “Mokuba, what happened? Is your brother alright?” He questioned, rubbing the younger boy’s back in what he hoped was a comforting motion. 

“He left me.” Mokuba managed to stutter out in between sobs, and Solomon blinked, not sure of what to say. 

“What do you mean he left you?” 

“Seto. He found a way to transport himself into the afterlife so he could challenge Yugi’s other half to a duel. He didn’t even tell me what happened, he just left. I found a note when I got home today.” Mokuba handed over the piece of paper, crumpled into a wrinkled mess. 

Solomon took it, smoothing the paper out on a table. It was a clinical sounding note, announcing his intentions and where to find his body in case he didn’t come back quickly. Hardly the note of a loving brother who wanted to reassure his sibling that everything was fine. Solomon sighed, folding it up neatly and handing it back to Mokuba. 

“I told him it wasn’t safe. I told him we hadn’t tested it properly. He told me it was just a simulation, that he was just going to pretend to fight him again.” Mokuba said, trying to catch his breath between sobs. Solomon let him, patting the young boy and whispering reassurances while he cried. 

“Let me make you some tea.” He suggested, patting the young boy on the shoulder. “Why don’t you go clean up in the bathroom while I do so.” He suggested, and Mokuba nodded, turning in the direction that Solomon pointed. The old man sighed, looking down at his watch. 

While he was thrilled his grandson had so many friends, there were certain times when he wished that he didn’t have quiet so many. Joey had shown up last night with a giant bruise on his face and had crashed on the couch. Ryou had been a frequent guest as well, still traumatized by his experience with his Yami. And of course, there had been his own grandson and the rough time he had coming to grips with the Pharaoh’s absence. He had finally gotten past it, gotten to the point when he could be happy that he got to spend time with the Pharaoh instead of sad that he left, and now this happened. 

Yugi had warned him that Kaiba was looking into finding a way to fight the Pharaoh again, but none of them had thought he could do it. They really shouldn’t doubt the brunet by now, but they had hoped that outside forces would have stopped this. Grandpa sighed, turning on the stove for the tea, lost in thought, silently kicking himself for the day he brought home an Ancient Egyptian puzzle for his grandson.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yami's sick, Mokuba's sad, and Grandpa's worried... what could go wrong now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to WavesOver for reviewing again... I'm going to try to get out one more chapter before school starts

Joey raced into the hospital, panting. Luckily, Yugi had forgotten his keys in his mad rush to go to the hospital with Yami, so Joey had been able to get to his friends quickly. Sometimes it stunk not to have a car, but Joey didn’t have the money to blow at this point. 

Jogging into the emergency room, he went through the screening, mentally patting himself on the back for leaving his switchblade at home. Yugi was in the waiting room, pacing back and forth in aggravation. “They won’t let me back there with him because I’m not family.” The younger boy stated, blinking back tears. 

“Have they said anything to you?” Joey questioned, trying to get Yugi to sit next to him. 

“Only that he had another seizure when we were in the ambulance.” Yugi said, resting his head on Joey’s shoulder. 

“Um, Yug? Isn’t that what happened to Bakura?” Joey questioned, looking at his friend. Yugi blinked, picking up his phone and calling Ryou, leaving a stressed voicemail when he didn’t get an answer. “Do you think it has something to do with how they came back?” Joey wondered, looking at Yugi. 

“I don’t know.” Yugi said, leaning forward to place his head in his hands, Joey pulling him close to try to comfort him. They stayed like that for a while, until the doctor came to tell them they were admitting Yami for observation ‘just for the night.’ Yugi nodded, numbly following the doctor up to Yami’s room. Joey walked next to him, quietly pondering what had happened. What were the odds that Bakura and Yami both suffered from the same thing? Was it a product of their new bodies, or something else? 

X 

Pegasus banged on Solomon’s door, frowning. He had been standing out there for almost 10 minutes. Breakfast was going on in the lobby, and there was nothing Pegasus enjoyed more than a free continental meal, sitting down, and watching people from all over the world stuff themselves full of food. 

“Mr. Muto?” He questioned, knocking yet again. Maybe someone downstairs would give him a room key. After all, he was paying for it. Kemo exited his room at that moment, looming over at his boss. Pushing the CEO aside gently, Kemo tapped his phone against the door, opening it with ease. 

“I loaded all of our room keys to my phone in case of emergency.” He stated, noticing his boss’s shocked face. Opening the door, the bodyguard entered, Pegasus right on his heels. The room was empty, the bed neatly made as well. The book Solomon had been looking at the night prior was gone, as well as the snake token they had found on the dig. 

“Where did he go?” Pegasus questioned, looking at his bodyguard. Kemo was already on the phone, calling down to the guard who had been posted outside the hotel. 

“Nobody saw him leave.” Kemo replied after a minute, hanging up the phone after barking a few orders. “Croquet did not report anything suspicious on his shift either.” 

Pegasus frowned, turning on his heel and marching downstairs. Flashing a smile at the woman at the front desk, he described the older man, hoping that she had seen them. A negative answer made him brow furrow, until she pointed to a closed door near them, indicating it was a library of sorts. 

Pegasus thanked her, using his room key to open the door. Sure enough, there was Solomon, sitting at the computer typing away, several books opened around him. 

“Mr. Muto, have you been up all night?” Pegasus asked, awkwardly stepping over to the older man. 

“Not all night. I got a burst of energy about 4 am and I decided to use it to my advantage.” Solomon replied, pointing to a book next to him. “I guess the pros of staying at an Egyptian hotel is they have a lot of books about ancient rituals.” Pegasus hummed in agreed, mentally sighing that the older man was alright. 

“Perhaps you would like to take a break and join me in a good old-fashioned Americanized hotel breakfast? They have waffles…” Pegasus let his voice trail off, happy that Solomon nodded in agreement. 

“Let me pack up.” He stated, closing the books, and saving his work. He stood up, turning towards Pegasus with a smile and allowing the younger man to escort him to breakfast. 

X 

Mokuba sat in his room, turned towards the window lost in thought. Seta had disappeared the morning after he had made the parfait, making it almost a week now since he'd been home. He knew his brother was trying to give him a break and a chance to work through what was bothering him, but that was the last thing that Mokuba needed. He needed his big brother, back the way he used to be when he would be Mokuba’s protector, instead of the cold person he had become. He thought back over their lives, to the times that Seto would stand up for him in the Home, to how he would protect him from Gozaburo, to how upset he had been not to be the one to save him from Pegasus and Noah, and a million other things that made up the relationship between the two brothers. 

Curling up in a ball, he could feel the tears slipping down his cheeks, wiping them away hesitantly as more and more kept falling. His non-relationship with his brother was getting to him, along with everything that was going on with his friends. Yami had been released from the hospital that morning insisting that he was fine. Tea had opened the Game Shop that morning, having quit her dance troupe after a knee injury.

There was a knock at the door, and a maid poked her head in, curtsying when she saw him. “Master Mokuba, you have a visit.” She said, smiling at him. The raven-haired boy sat up, wiping his face carefully. 

“I’m not in the mood for anyone.” He muttered, and she shook her head. 

“It’s one of your friends, and I don’t think he’ll take no for an answer.” 

“Thanks Melissa.” Duke said, breezing past her with a wink. The young girl giggled, blowing a kiss at the CEO before leaving. Duke watched her go before turning back to Mokuba with a smile. 

“What are you up to?” He questioned, plopping down on the couch that Seto had insisted on putting in Mokuba’s room. 

“Nothing.” Mokuba replied flatly, and Duke grinned. 

“Good, because I have some plans for us.” He said, smiling broadly. 

“What kind of plans?” Mokuba asked, looking over at his friend. 

“Well, I just came up with some new tactics for Dungeon Dice Monsters, and I need someone to help me out with them. What do you think?” 

“I guess.” Mokuba said, staring out the window. Duke let him sit for a minute, casually playing with the dice in his hands. 

“Come on Mokuba, I’ll even let you throw in some ‘it’s just like Duel Monsters’ cracks.” Duke said, flipping a die in the air and catching it on his fingertip. Mokuba continued to ignore him, rolling over on his side and attempting to ignore Duke. “Now, that might work on your brother, but I’m a different story.” Duke warned, jumping on the bed and draping himself over the VP. 

Mokuba looked over at him, a question forming in his mind. “How do you do it?” He asked, and Duke blinked in surprise. 

“What do you mean?” He asked, pushing himself off Mokuba to sit cross-legged next to him, figuring that this was going to be a serious conversation. Mokuba followed suit, sitting up slowly and follow 

“How do you run a company and still find time to…” He waved a hand awkwardly, not sure how to say it. “I mean, Pegasus went crazy and tried to kill all of us, same thing with Zigfried. Seto tried to kill himself to beat Yami, how do you run a successful business and not go crazy?” Duke smiled, reaching over and tapping Mokuba on the knee. 

“I don’t go crazy because I don’t allow myself too.” He said carefully. “I’ve never been obsessed over something like those three. Let’s face it, my shop is nowhere near what they have either. I do well enough to provide for myself, Tristan, and our baby, but I’ll never be in the Fortune 500.” Mokuba smiled softly at that, shaking his head. 

“I don’t know if Joey would like you calling him a baby.” Duke winked, causing Mokuba to laugh again. 

“Maybe your right. After all, babies are much more fun to be around and a lot less mouthy.” Mokuba laughed again, shaking his head. 

“Alright, let me get dressed and we can go.” 

“Good.” Duke said, sliding off the bed. “I’ll wait for you in the car. I don’t want Melissa getting any ideas.” 

“You really should let her down gently Duke. It’s the honorable thing to do.” Mokuba said, wagging a finger at his friend. 

“Hey, I can’t help it if the ladies love Duke.” The green-eyed man stated calmly, reaching up to play with a piece of his hair. 

“Gross.” Mokuba laughed, shaking his head as Duke disappeared out the door. He quickly got dressed, looking at his messy hair before running a brush through it and tying it in a knot. Shrugging to himself, he grabbed his bookbag, slinging the worn strap over his shoulder before grabbing his phone, texting Roland to let him know where he was going before leaving.

X

“Hold on, hold on” Duke muttered, writing something down on his pad. Ryou and Bakura had ended up coming over as well,Ryou insisting that he couldn’t let Bakura out of his sight in fear that something else would happen to him. Duke had texted Yugi as well, offering to come get Yami but the former Pharaoh had declined, deciding to stay home and rest. The four of them took turns playing, looking over the updated characters for the game and giving Duke advice on them, sometimes leading to a few well-placed Duel Monster’s jokes. Only Bakura was quiet, sitting next to Ryou when he wasn’t playing, making only a few comments here and there. 

Mokuba couldn’t help but notice the worried glancing that Ryou kept giving him and worried himself. Joey had mentioned several side effects from the medication that Bakura was taking, and clearly Bakura was feeling them. “How about lunch?” The VP asked, looking over at the other three. Duke nodded, looking at his watch. It was almost two already, and his stomach reminded him of how hungry it was. 

“How about we order some pizza on Pegasus? This is a work lunch after all?” Duke suggested and Mokuba wrinkled his nose. 

“if we’re spending Pegasus’s money, I say we at least go to Burger World and invite Joey.” Ryou smiled at that, tapping Bakura on the arm who started as if he was asleep. 

“How about that new Italian restaurant? They’re at least a little bit more expensive than an regular pizza shop?” 

“Sounds good to me.” Duke said, writing one more note and shutting his book. 

“Let me just text Roland and let him know where we are going.” Mokuba said, tapping away on his phone. His got an all clear from his bodyguard and grinned, looking up at his friends. “Let’s go!” 

“You heard the kid, we can’t let him starve after all.” Duke announced, dangling his car keys in front of them. Ryou leaned over and whispered something into Bakura’s ear, the white-haired spirit nodding before struggling to get up and follow them out the door. 

X

A week and a half later, Joey was sitting in the apartment floor working on the last bits of his homework. Bakura and Yami were currently wrapping up knick-knacks, neither one allowed to carry boxes because of the strain. Tea was in the kitchen, wrapping up dishes while sitting on the counter so she wasn't putting weight on her knee. Everyone else was carrying boxes back and forth, loading up the moving van with their junk.

Joey had tried to help, but everyone had insisted that he stay put and get his work done. Currently the radio was on, the announcer droning on about   
someone being reunited with their long-lost dog. 

Joey was concentrating on a difficult math problem so hard he missed the breaking news interruption until “Kaiba Corp” was mentioned. Blinking, he looked up, barely noticed how Bakura and Yami had already stopped working and Tea had limped in from the kitchen. 

“Has been admitted to the hospital. Sources tell us he collapsed during a business meeting and was not breathing.” 

“Oh my god” Tea whispered, face draining of color. “It can’t be Kaiba. There’s no way they would let the news leak out before Mokuba knew…” Everyone looked over at the counter. They had all left their phones there to prevent distractions when they were lifting heavy boxes. Joey had his, but it was turned off while he did schoolwork. Duke reached for his, relieved that he hadn’t missed anything. Tea hadn’t either, but as soon as Joey turned his on there was a steady flow of beeping. He knew without looking it would be Roland, and immediately went outside to find Mokuba. The VP was helping Tristan try to wedge a box in a tight corner, smiling when it finally went it. 

“Hey, you finally get your work done?” Tristan asked when he saw Joey, his smile fading as he saw Joey’s face. 

“Mokuba…” Joey trailed off, not sure of what to say. The younger boy stood there, trying to read the blond’s face. 

“Joey? Did something happen?” He asked. Joey sighed, placing a hand on Joey’s shoulder. 

"We need to go to the hospital. Your brother is sick.” Mokuba’s eyes widened and filled up with tears. 

“Is he ok?” 

“I’m not sure kid. Let’s get you over there so you can check on him.” Tea had already come out, car keys dangling in her hand. 

“I’ll drive. You guys stay here and finish up, we’ll call if we need anything.” She said, placing a hand on Mokuba’s shoulder and pushing him towards the car, hobbling around to get in the drivers seat. Joey grabbed the raven-haired boys arm, guiding him to the backseat before getting in himself. Yugi appeared out of nowhere to jump in the passenger seat, nodding to Tea to go. 

X 

Tea pulled up to the emergency room, stopping at the doors to let the other two out. “I’ll find a parking spot and meet you guys inside.” She said, and Joey nodded. Yugi jumped out, helping Joey pull Mokuba from the car before indicating he would go with Tea. Joey nodded, focusing on helping Mokuba who was completely dazed. Walking through the door, they were greeted by Kaiba Corp medical staff who immediately escorted them away to a private room where a doctor was waiting. 

Joey knew this was bad, what doctor would be waiting to speak to them otherwise? Mokuba sank into a chair, clutching Joey’s hand. Roland appeared on his other side, and Mokuba reached up to grab his hand as well before turning towards the doctor. 

“According to our records, you are your brothers next of kin correct?” Mokuba nodding, trying to hold it together. 

“Your brother was brought here after what appears to be a seizure episode. Luckily, he was in a meeting and somewhere there knew enough to get him on the ground and rolled on his side so he didn’t choke. We’re running some tests right now, but he is unconscious.” Mokuba covered his face, learning forward to sob quietly. 

Roland patted him on the back, leaning forward to attempt to soothe his younger employer. The doctor gave them a minute before continuing. 

“His personal physician has been contacted and is on his way. I will have someone come and get you as soon as we know something.” The doctor promised, turning to leave the room. Joey jumped up, whispering he was going to find Yugi and Tea before following the doctor out, jogging to catch up to her and get her attention. 

“Excuse me?” 

“Yes?” She inquired, looking over at him. 

“Kaiba’s been spending a lot of time with a couple of our friends who recently developed seizure-like activity as well. Is it possible this could be environmental?” He questioned. 

“It’s always possible. Exposure to poisons could cause seizures. It could also be a coincidence, but perhaps we should run some tests…” She trailed off, making a notation on Kaiba’s chart. “Right now, we’re concerned about stabilizing Mr. Kaiba, his doctor will help figure out what’s going on.” Nodding to Joey, she turned and walked away, leaving Joey standing there chewing on this lip in thought.

X

Solomon stretched, pulled out another book to look at. Pegasus had insisted on getting him a hotel room after Ishizu got sick, not wanting to risk anyone else falling ill. The locals went home at night, and Solomon had been ready to pitch a tent and sleep next to his hole, just as he had done every other time he had been on an exposition. Still, he appreciated the gesture, and with the way he had been feeling all day it was nice to be inside an air-conditioned room with his feet up. 

He was currently looking at the snake artifact again, feeling drawn to it for some reason. He knew the myths about the endless cycle of days that the snake represented and wondered if maybe that could hold the answer to what was going on. Flipping through the book, he finally found the passage he was looking for, reading it quickly as a sense of dread came over him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wait, there's maybe an actually plot here?!?!?!?


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grandpa sets off to investigate his findings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to WavesOver for reviewing and KaibaChan for kudos. This will probably be the last chapter for awhile unless I have time to write in between school work.

Solomon re-read the section about the self-consuming snake and its connection to Atum, the original God of Egypt. Atum was the Egyptian creator, his name meaning totality. Ancient Egyptians believed that everything that existed was part of Atum, and people were one of his kas. Atum created himself out of a mound and created everything in the world as well. He was also the first Egyptian God who looked human as opposed to an animal.   
However, Atum also had a flip side. As the ultimate creator, he was also the ultimate destroyer, the one who would one day return the earth to its primal waters, destroying everything, even the gods, except for Osiris and himself who would return to serpents during this time. 

Unfortunately, Atum did not state how he would destroy the world, or what would lead up to it, leaving Solomon pondering, holding the snake token in his hand, feeling the cold metal slowly warming up. Something was telling him that he needed to get this artifact to the Pharaoh, but how? 

Egypt had ramped up its security the past few years to protect her treasures, and Solomon was not looking to spend the rest of his life in prison. He was meticulous in documenting everything that had been found, and enough of the locals had witnessed the artifact being discovered that there was no way he could get it out of Egypt without someone noticing. 

Still, he wondered what to do. Sighing in frustration, he closed the book, placing the artifact in his pocket before calling the guard on duty and informing him that he was walking over to the hospital to visit Ishizu.

X

Kaiba groaned as his eyes opened, looking around the room in annoyance. His head throbbed, and he winced, attempting to reach up and touch it before realizing he could barely move his arms. A monitor beeped, and a few seconds later a nurse burst in, barely noting that he was awake before fiddling around with the machine. He opened his mouth to speak to her, wincing at how weak his voice sounded. 

“Just relax Mr. Kaiba.” The nurse told him, punching something in on the computer she was holding. Placing it on a shelf, she turned to him, smiling. 

“You’ve been out for a few days, so take it easy ok?” Kaiba glared, which she ignored. “I’ve paged the doctor on call who will be here in a few minutes. I’ll call your bodyguard so he can let your brother know your awake.” 

Kaiba attempted to reach out, trying to tell her that he didn’t want to worry his brother, but he was unable. Frustrated, he closed his eyes, trying to summon up the strength to get his words out. The nurse patted him on the arm, typing something else on her computer. 

“Are you hungry Mr. Kaiba? I can see if the doctor will let me order something for you.” Kaiba frowned, nodding his head briefly before laying it back on the pillow. The nurse checked him over briefly, typing a few more things in on her computer, finishing up just as the doctor walked in. 

“Hello Mr. Kaiba.” She said, nodding to the nurse as the other woman left the room. “Is there anybody you would like to have come in with you? I know your guard Roland is waiting outside.” Kaiba shook his head, attempting to sit up. The doctor reached for the controls, showing him how to lift the bed much to the CEO’s chargin. 

“We’ve been reviewing your medical history with your personal physician, and it looks like he’s been warning you for years about your poor health. You had a seizure the other day at work, but after testing we haven’t seen any damage. However, blood work shows you have a high level of lead in your blood, and we believe that your seizures were caused by lead poisoning.” 

“Where?” Kaiba managed to ask, and the doctor shook her head. 

“We are not sure, but we were informed that several others that you were working on a project with have come down with similar symptoms. I would suggest that the three of you get together and see if you can figure out where you were exposed at before others get sick.” Kaiba blinked again, unsure of what to do. “We have to keep you here for a couple of days for observation. I suggest you try to get some sleep tonight, and we will discuss your care in the morning when you’re feeling better.” 

X

Ishizu was sitting up in bed when Solomon came in, talking in low tones with Odion. Both looked up when the elder Moto came in. 

“How are you feeling Ishizu?” Solomon questioned, smiling at the young woman. When Yugi first came back, he had told his grandfather about the Pharaohs loyal court which had included the two of them. When Ishizu had started traveling to Japan working on exhibits, she had quickly developed a bond with the older Moto, the two of them talking often. 

“Much better, thank you. I’m hoping to be out of here tomorrow.” 

“Good, because I need your help.” Solomon stated, pulling the artifact out of his pocket. “I need to get this back to Japan to the Pharaoh.” Ishizu held out her hand, accepting the object which she immediately dropped on the bed and clutched her palm. 

“What’s wrong?” Odion questioned, instantly concerned. 

“It feels like that object burned me.” Ishizu said, looking down at her hand. The skin looked normal, no sign of a burn anywhere. 

“Let me sister.” Odion said, picking the object up. He had no issues and put it in front of his sister who gently touched it a few times. 

“This is the artifact we were digging up when I felt sick.” Ishizu said, looking over at Solomon who nodded. 

“Clearly, it has some sort of effect on you Ishizu. I just don’t know what.” Ishizu frowned, finally able to pick the snake up without getting hurt. 

“Marik said that Kaiba is in the hospital now with seizures as well. This cannot be a coincidence.” 

“I agree. I’m just not sure what the connection is. That is why I’m here. Is there a way I can get this to Japan without risking the ire of your government?” Ishizu frowned, thinking. 

“Sister. Perhaps if we told them we were setting up an exhibit in Domino that would work?” Odion suggested after a few minutes. “After all, we have connections because of Ryou. We could say they want to showcase some of the things that a local legend found on his latest dig.” 

“That could work…” Ishizu muttered, thinking. “You or Marik would have to go along with it though.” She finished, looking over at Odion. 

“I will go and allow Master Marik to stay here with you.” 

“I think that’s for the best.” Ishizu stated, looking down at the artifact in her hand again. “It’s funny how an object can have so many meanings isn’t it?” She questioned, her voice sounding far-away. 

“Yes, but many times things only seem different.” Solomon replied, watching her face carefully. Odion was already reaching for the call button when Ishizu’s eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed on the bed, the snake artifact falling to the ground unnoticed. 

X

Yugi got off the phone, frowning. Pegasus had just called to let him know that Ishizu had had a relapse and was currently in a coma. The doctors weren’t sure how, but they believed she had somehow been bitten by a snake while in the hospital and gave her anti-venom for an Egyptian Cobra bite. She had been rushed into the ICU and hooked up to a ventilator. Pegasus had asked Yugi to come to Egypt and bring Yami and Bakura with him. They wanted Kaiba as well, but Yugi knew he wouldn’t care enough to come. 

Glancing over at the Pharaoh, he watched silently as Yami played solitaire at the kitchen table. While his side effects from the medication weren’t as bad as Bakura’s, sometimes Yami would sit around doing nothing for long periods of time, worrying all of them. 

“Hey Yami?” Yugi questioned, looking over at him. 

“Yes?” The former monarch asked, still looking at his cards. 

“That was Pegasus. Ishizu isn’t doing so good and Grandpa wants us to come out. Something happened.” Yami looked up, eyeing his former host carefully. 

“What?” He asked. 

“Pegasus said she got bit by a snake. Apparently, Grandpa was showing her a snake artifact and he thinks it somehow bit her.” Yugi said, shrugging. 

“Oh.” Yami replied, placing down another card. 

“He said they believe it was an Egyptian Cobra.” Yugi mentioned, causing Yami to look at him. Egyptian Cobra’s were part of the Ancient Egyptian belief system, the goddess Meretseger shown with a cobra head. Many Pharaohs, himself included, had worn diadem’s (an ornamental headband or type of crown) with cobra’s as part of the design. In addition, Cleopatra’s apparent suicide had been contributed to an Egyptian Cobra bite as well.  
“Pegasus offered to send over a plane with his personal doctor on board in case there’s any issues along the way.” Yami nodded slowly, something dancing in the back of his mind that he couldn’t quite remember. 

“I have to call Ryou and see if he can convince Bakura to come. Why don’t you go back to your game and I’ll let you know what’s going on?” Yugi   
suggested and Yami nodded, slowing flipping over his next card to reveal an Ace of Spades.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to tarot cards, Spades represent struggles, and the Ace of Spades represents something coming to an end to make room for something new.   
> Supposedly, Cleopatra had prisoners bitten by different types of snakes to see their effects and choose the Egyptian Cobra to bite her. This is debated because the snake is big enough that it would be difficult to smuggle in, and it is not necessarily deadly- people have survived for hours after a bite.


End file.
